A FURTHER 988 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Ireland, the National Public Health Emergency Team has said this evening.

In a statement, NPHET confirmed that another 26 people who were confirmed to have Covid-19 have died.

24 of the deaths occurred in February, while one is from January and one from October.

This now leaves the death toll from Covid-19 at 4,135, with a total of 214,378 cases of the virus being confirmed in Ireland since the pandemic began.

Of the cases notified today:

• 487 are men, 499 are women
• 70% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 32 years old
• 378 in Dublin, 68 in Galway, 61 in Kildare, 47 in Limerick, 45 in Louth and the remaining 389 cases are spread across all other counties.

The median age of people who died was 81 years and their ages ranged from 58 to 98 years.

As of 8am today, 719 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, with 149 are in ICU.

36 additional hospitalisations were made in the past 24 hours.

Up to 17 February, 310,900 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered, including 197,609 first doses and 113,291 second doses. 

The national 14-day incidence rate now stands at 250.2 per 100,000 people.

Validation of data at the Health Protection Surveillance Centre has resulted in 10 cases that were previously confirmed being denotified, which is reflected in the current running total.

Yesterday, three cases of the new variant (P1) first discovered in Brazil were detected in Ireland.

Additional reporting by Lauren Boland