Covid 19 Seven further deaths and 400 new cases reported by Nphet
over 4 years in The Irish Times
A further seven deaths of Covid-19 patients have been reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team. This brings to 4,737 the total number of deaths in the pandemic.
Two of the deaths occurred in April, two in March and three in February.
Those who died ranged in age from 62 to 89 years and the median age was 78.
Nphet also reported 400 new confirmed cases of the disease on Thursday evening, bringing to 239,723 the total number of cases in the Republic.
Of the new cases, 162 were in Dublin, 61 in Kildare, 26 in Cork, 21 in Galway, 17 in Donegal with the remaining cases spread across 18 other counties.
The 14-day incidence of the disease now stands at 147 cases per 100,000 people nationally. Offaly has the highest county incidence, followed by Westmeath. Sligo has the lowest incidence
The median age of cases is 35 years and 72 per cent are under 45.
Earlier the HSE confirmed the one millionth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine has been administered in the State.
It said the milestone was reached on Thursday.
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has fallen to 220, with 54 of those in intensive care (ICU), according to the latest figures from the HSE.
The Mater Hospital in Dublin has 27 Covid-19 cases, the highest number in the country, followed by Beaumont Hospital (25) and Tallaght Hospital (25).
Meanwhile, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said mandatory hotel quarantine would be extended to other countries once legal challenges and capacity requirements were met.
He said the Government was “at one” on the need to respond to the advice of public health experts to keep variants of Covid-19 out of Ireland.
There had been many meetings between the Departments of Health, Justice, Transport and Foreign Affairs on the extension of the number of countries for whom mandatory quarantine would be necessary, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
The leak of the extended list of countries before plans were ready was “unfortunate,” he added. Mr Coveney said the Government needed to ensure that there would be capacity to deal with the significant issues that would arise“before we announced the list of countries”.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly described reports that board members at the Mater hospital were offered a Covid-19 vaccine as “completely unacceptable.”
He told Newstalk’s Pat Kenny show that the vaccine rollout programme was going “really well” but that “completely unacceptable situations with the board of the Mater, for example, with the Beacon Hospital, for example, schools in south Dublin/north Wicklow CHO. They’re a tiny, tiny fraction of the million doses that will be administered – but they do undermine confidence.”
Dr Mary Favier, former president of the Irish College of General Practitioners and member of the National Public Health Emergency Team, expressed disappointment that people in positions of leadership had taken the Covid-19 vaccine out of sequence.
When asked about the case of directors at the Mater hospital receiving the vaccine, Dr Favier said she did not know details of the specific cases, but that it was “very disappointing”. People in positions of leadership needed to show that they believed in the system of prioritisation, she said on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
Mr Donnelly also said he is very open to allowing fully vaccinated people attend concerts and other events.
He said the EU was working on a green certificate that would enable vaccinated or immune people to travel within the single market. However, he said we was open to easing other restrictions on vaccinated people.