THE NUMBER OF patients being treated in hospital for Covid-19 has fallen, following a slight rise yesterday.

There are now 179 people being treated for Covid-19 in hospitals across the state as of 8pm yesterday, falling from 192 in the previous 24 hours, according to the HSE’s Daily Operations Update.

There has also been a slight increase in the number of patients in critical care with Covid-19.

There are now 51 people in ICU receiving treatment for Covid-19, an increase of 1 on the previous 24 hour period. 26 of these patients are receiving ventilated care.

The hospitals with the highest number of Covid-19 patients include the Mater Hospital (19), Connolly Hospital (18), St James’ Hospital (17), Beaumont Hospital (16), Naas Hospital (13) and Tallaght Hospital (13).

It comes as there was a further 420 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Ireland last night, alongside 11 deaths spread across multiple months.

HSE Chief Paul Reid says that the progress of the vaccination programme is leading to a decreased level of sickness across cohorts who have received the vaccine, including that almost 1.2 million vaccines have been administered.

We've now administered almost 1.2M #CovidVaccine with 22% of the eligible population having had a 1st dose. The real measures of sickness, hospitalisations, ICU & mortality all radically reduced. Next week we commence those aged 65-69 @HSELive

— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) April 17, 2021