Coronavirus: 575 new cases and 45 further deaths reported as 9,618 more vaccines given

A further 45 deaths of Covid-19 patients have been reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team. Those who died ranged in age from 55 to 104 year and the median age was 84. Four of the deaths date from January and 41 occurred this month. This brings to 4,181 the total number of deaths in the pandemic.

Nphet also reported 575 confirmed cases of the disease, bringing to 216,300 the total number of cases in the Republic.

The 14-day incidence of the disease now stands at 240 cases per 100,000 people nationally. Offaly has the highest county incidence, followed by Monaghan and Dublin. Kerry has the lowest incidence.

Of the new cases, 218 are in Dublin, 38 in Galway, 35 in Louth, 27 in Limerick and 26 in Westmeath, with the remaining 231 cases spread across 20 other counties. The median age of cases is 32 years and 68 per cent are under 45.

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On Tuesday afternoon, 693 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, down 33 from the previous day. This included 150 in ICU, down six. There were 37 additional hospitalisations in the previous 24 hours.

Up to Saturday, 350,322 doses of Covid-19 vaccine had been administered, 9,618 more than the previous day. This included 219,899 first doses and 130,423 people second doses.

Prof Philip Nolan, chair of the Nphet epidemiological modelling advisory group, said on Tuesday that while progress has slowed "we are still making progress". He said cases were down 8 per cent last week on the week before and there were under 700 Covid-19 patients in hospital.

“Importantly the number of symptomatic cases is falling, while we see more asymptomatic contacts. It’s really hard, but we have to keep going.” he tweeted.