A FURTHER 613 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Ireland, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has said this evening.

In a statement, it said that a further 35 people confirmed to have Covid-19 had died. 21 of these deaths occurred in February, 12 occurred in January, 1 in November, while one further death is under investigation.

The median age of those who died was 85 years, and the age range was 53-102 years.

The death toll from Covid-19 in Ireland is 4,271, and the total number of confirmed cases is now at 217,478.

Of the cases notified today, 66% are under 45 years of age and the median age is 34.

As of 8am today, there are 591 Covid-19 patients in hospital, of which 138 are in ICU. There have been 20 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of Tuesday, 359,616 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

• 226,291 people have received their first dose
• 133,325 people have received their second dose.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said that the progress made in bringing cases down meant that schools can reopen on “a cautious and phased basis”.

“However, we must remember that Covid-19 is still circulating at a high level and, we are still seeing positivity rates of around 15% in the community.”

Maintain a social distance at all times, wear a face covering, do not mix with other households other than for essential reasons, wash our hands, and most importantly, ensure that children do not attend school if they display symptoms of Covid-19, as per the HSE website, including fever, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell.

If you display any of these symptoms, you should self-isolate and phone your GP or GP out-of-hours service to arrange for a test.

Dr Lucy Jessop, Director at the National Immunisation Office, said:

“The vaccine is already having a significant impact on our healthcare workers. In the last week in January, almost 1,400 healthcare workers contracted COVID-19; that number was less than 300 last week. This is wonderful news and clearly demonstrates the early impact the vaccination programme is having.” 

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said that “significant progress” had been made “slowly”.

“The reproduction number remains below 1, between 0.6 and 0.9, which is a real achievement given the higher transmissibility of the B.1.1.7 variant, which accounts for 90% of cases.” 

With reporting from Hayley Halpin.