Ireland has recorded more than 200,000 Covid-19 infections

OVER 1,318 new Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Ireland, bringing the total number of cases to over 200,000.

In a statement, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) said another 75 people who were confirmed to have Covid-19 had died.

46 of these deaths occurred in February, 27 occurred in January, and two occurred at an earlier date.

The death toll from Covid-19 in Ireland is now 3,586, and the total number of confirmed cases is 200,744.

Of the cases reported today:

• 622 are men / 688 are women
• 58% are under 45 years old
• The average age is 40 years.
• 428 in Dublin, 122 in Cork, 93 in Galway, 78 in Kildare, 77 in Limerick and the remaining 520 cases are distributed in all other counties.

At 2:00 p.m. today, 1,284 Covid-19 patients were in the hospital, of which 188 were in the ICU. There have been 74 additional hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.

Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan said that in the coming weeks people “will see many more of our vulnerable loved ones receive their Covid-19 vaccinations.”

“This is good news and it gives us all great hope. However, even if you have received your Covid-19 vaccine, you should continue to wash your hands, cover your face, maintain a social distance, and keep your close contacts to a minimum. Until we are all vaccinated, we must act as if none of us have been vaccinated, ”said Dr. Holohan.

Yesterday it was confirmed that more than 70 will receive mRNA vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna “when possible and timely.”

Source: Department of Health

Dr. Ronan Glynn, Deputy CMO, said: “Today we reached another important and unwanted milestone by reporting more than 200,000 confirmed cases. We must all redouble our efforts and reduce the incidence of disease in our community. “

“We are seeing a clear pattern in people with symptoms who are slow to contact their GP to arrange a test. It is vital that as soon as you notice that you have COVID-19 symptoms, you isolate yourself and contact your GP immediately. If we act quickly, we can prevent the spread of Covid-19 and protect our vulnerable loved ones. “

Professor Philip Nolan, chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group, said the next few weeks will be “difficult for all of us.”

“As we bring daily case levels below 1,000 per day, our progress will appear to slow down,” said Professor Nolan.

“It is now more important than ever that we continue our efforts to reduce the number of cases to the very low levels we achieved in June and July. In that sense, it is very good news that our estimates of the R number are well below one, in the region of 0.5 to 0.8 ”.

– With reporting by Sean Murray