ACROSS the globe the trend has been set: more men appear to be dying from coronavirus than women ... but not in Ireland.
Statistics have shown that women in this country are not only more likely to contract the virus, but are also more likely to be killed by the disease than their male counterparts.
In the likes of China, only 36% of people to suffer coronavirus-related deaths have been women. The figure for women in Germany is 38% and in Italy just 29%.
But Ireland completely bucks the trend, with 57% of confirmed cases being female, and 50.5% of Covid-19-related deaths being women. Not a massive majority, considering that the European average stands at 42%, Ireland's figure stands out.
There are a number of possible reasons for this.
Some have claimed that because in Ireland there are more women than men aged over 60 - the age group most likely to contract and succumb to coronavirus - this explains the disparity.
However this hypothesis falls apart when you consider that women on average have a longer lifespan in countries where men are dying significantly more frequently from the virus, like China and Italy.
Orla O'Connor of the National Women’s Council of Ireland says that we’re still not sure why the data is skewed so that Irish women make up the majority of cases:
"We don’t have the scientific data to tell us why this is the case, but what we would say is that it really highlights certain factors that the Covid-19 crisis has really shown up."
She said there were three factors that have been highlighted.
"One is the number of older women in nursing homes.
"The other two significant factors are the fact that the majority of our health workers are women. And the third one is that the majority of people who are in caring - caring for older people, caring for ill people - are women as well."
O'Connor added: "We see time and time again in terms of surveys or research, women in Ireland still bear the majority responsibility for care in a much more significant way than in other countries.
"That has put them at much more risk of the virus."
