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The Department of Health has been notified of 51 new deaths and 2,608 additional cases of Covid-19.
The number of patients in intensive care units is 214, four more than yesterday.
There have been a total of 54,318 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past two weeks.
The 14-day incidence rate is 1,141.
Of the cases reported today, 1,346 are women and 1,230 are men; 55% are under 45 years of age and the median age is 42 years.
1,019 cases were reported in Dublin, 204 in Cork, 135 in Donegal, 132 in Galway, 131 in Kildare, and the remaining 987 cases are distributed in all other counties.
Speaking at the NPHET press conference tonight, Deputy Medical Director Dr. Ronan Glynn said: “There have been 532 deaths so far in January and, unfortunately, we can expect this trend to continue in the coming days.”
The chair of the Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group, Professor Philip Nolan, said that the growth rate of the epidemic is negative, and that the number of cases per day is decreasing between -7% and -8%.
He said the R number is estimated to be between 0.5 and 0.8. However, he said this is going to be difficult to sustain.
Professor Nolan said the data also suggests that the number of ICU patients would also “stabilize”, but said it would take a long time.
Professor Philip Nolan Says Hospital Admissions Appear to Have Stagnant and Expects the Number of Hospital Patients to Decline “Very Slowly” | https://t.co/xcEXiIZcoQ pic.twitter.com/NUEZF7j2xV
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 21, 2021
Professor Nolan said the number of confirmed deaths per day for the past seven days was 44, the highest at any time during the pandemic.
He said the number of hospital admissions has peaked and he expects them to decline.
Professor Nolan said he is concerned about the incidence rate in long-term residential care.
Also speaking at the briefing, Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan said that the level of infection is still too high and that further progress is needed.
Discussing the new variants of the virus, Dr. Holohan said that they have not yet detected the variant of the virus that was discovered in Brazil.
However, they have identified three cases of the strain that originated in South Africa.
Dr Holohan said that the variant first discovered in the UK will become the dominant strain of the virus for the next several weeks.
That variant represents more than 60% of the most recent cases analyzed, he said.
Dr. Holohan added that most people adhere to non-essential travel and that containment measures are still adequate.
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Meanwhile, the HSE has published a study of antibodies against Covid 19 in healthcare workers at two hospitals.
It found that 15% of the staff at Dublin’s St James Hospital had antibodies, while 4% of the staff at Galway University Hospital had antibodies.
At the briefing, HSE National Health Protection Clinical Director Dr. Lorraine Doherty said that the PRECISE study reflects the different rates of community transmission in Dublin and Galway and is not due to a lack of preventive measures.
Dr. Doherty also said that it showed that all healthcare workers are at risk, not just those who worked with patients.
He said the number of asymptomatic and undiagnosed cases also reinforced the need for both patients and hospital staff to wear face masks.
Dr. Doherty said that antibody positivity cannot mean that a person is immune and that all infection prevention measures must still be followed.
He said the study will be repeated again in the spring and will also look at the response to the vaccine.
Previously, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has not explicitly ruled out the idea of restaurants closing until May or even longer.
Speaking at Virgin Media’s Ireland AM this morning, he said schools will be analyzed separately, but retail sectors are likely to remain closed until the end of February.
“It will be well into next month before most of Covid’s restrictions are relaxed,” he said.
Martin also said that those over 70 will be in line for vaccines in March.
Regarding the travel bans, the Taoiseach said that “we tell people not to go in or out.”
He added: “Now there is a requirement for a PCR test. The evidence to date is that people adhere to that.
“It is under constant review. The difficulty is that people fly to Belfast. It is not as simple as banning travel.”
Addressing the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party last night, the Taoiseach said the transmission figures for the coronavirus were “still very high.”
He told his party’s deputies, senators and MEPs that the recent increase in deaths from Covid-19 shows the devastation caused by this virus, and maintained that Ireland still has “some way to go” to deal with that threat.
Martin said there is, what he called, a “clear horizon” for the restrictions that continue beyond this month.
Speaking in the Fine Gael parliamentary party, Foreign Minister and Fine Gael Vice President Simon Coveney was more forthright, saying that the vast majority of Covid-19 restrictions will remain in place well into February.
He argued that the current restrictions are working and the rapid rise of the coronavirus in communities has stopped.
But he concluded that the current sanitary restrictions will be in place for several more weeks.
Yesterday, 61 more Covid-related deaths and 2,488 more cases were reported.
New figures from the Center for Health Protection Surveillance for the week through January 16 show that the number of Covid-19 outbreaks increased last week.
Total outbreaks increased to 293 compared to 220 the previous week. The main increases were observed in residential institutions and hospitals.
The number of outbreaks in workplaces also rose to 41 from 25 the previous week. Outbreaks in private homes fell for the second week in a row.
Additional reports Paul Cunningham
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