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The Health Department reported no further Covid-related deaths and 575 new cases.
At 8 a.m. today, 360 Covid-19 patients were in the hospital, of which 85 are in the ICU.
There were 25 additional hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.
Today’s cases include 289 men and 282 women. 73% are under 45 years of age and the median age is 30 years.
232 of the cases were in Dublin, 48 in Meath, 41 in Tipperary, 38 in Kildare, 30 in Galway and the remaining 186 cases are spread over 20 other counties.
Regarding vaccines, new HSE figures show that as of last Friday, 606,904 people had received a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine; of these, 443,092 were first doses and 163,812 were second doses.
The chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group has said that we are static, if not increasing, in terms of case numbers averaging around 550 cases per day compared to 480 cases per day on March 10.
At the NPHET briefing, Professor Philip Nolan said that the 14-day incidence rate is below 150.
He said the number of new admissions per day at the hospital, or new confirmations at the hospital, has remained static at 20-25 for the past two weeks.
He said the numbers in the ICU and the number of admissions continues to decline, as does the number of deaths, which remains high at an average of 16 per day for the past 7 days, but is decreasing.
The situation we find ourselves in now is similar to the situation immediately after Halloween, where the number of cases increased for about a week to ten days. Increased social mixing is the culprit, says Professor Philip Nolan. | Read more: https://t.co/imAv9upeGR pic.twitter.com/xcthQqTyom
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 15, 2021
Professor Nolan said that what is happening this week relates to the mixing and social interactions that happened 10-14 days ago.
He said that relative to the 5-day moving average and weekly case counts, last week was “essentially comparable to the previous week” in terms of both registered weekly and daily confirmed case counts.
He said that since week 1 of 2021, the decrease has gone from 40% per week, then 20% per week for about 5-6 weeks, but in the last week there was a decrease of 3%.
Professor Philip Nolan says cases are now emerging in younger cohorts. The incidence is increasing in people ages 19 to 24, 13 to 18, 5 to 12, and 25 to 39 years. In general, the cases are in older children and young adults at this time, he says. | Read more: https://t.co/imAv9upeGR pic.twitter.com/gjwb5EzdLQ
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 15, 2021
Dublin GP Dr Ray Walley said GPs are focusing on the vaccination program for those over 70, which is not affected by the AztraZeneca problem.
He said the program’s first cycle ended last week with nearly 99% of those 85 and older receiving their first dose.
He said the first round of the second dose for over 85 years begins this week and will be completed in four weeks.
He said dose two to over 85 is guaranteed, but dose one to over 75 will be limited this week as the available supply targets more than 80 nationwide.
The program is still ready for completion in mid-May, he said.
Dr Ray Walley says GPs and IMO representatives support the pause of the AstraZeneca vaccine for further investigation of side effects. | Read more: https://t.co/imAv9upeGR pic.twitter.com/iFwdwq87hJ
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 15, 2021
In Northern Ireland, the Department of Health has said 684,097 Covid vaccines have been administered.
629,461 of them are first doses, with 54,636 second doses.
It occurs when one more death from coronavirus has been recorded in Northern Ireland.
The official death toll there has reached 2,099.
Today 121 new cases were confirmed after testing 1,000 people.
It is the lowest daily number of cases for almost 6 months.
There are 182 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, with 22 in the ICU, 16 of whom are hooked up to ventilators.
The average 7-day infection rate per 100,000 people in Northern Ireland is 65.4.
The area with the highest rate is Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon at 78.2 while the lowest is Fermanagh and Omagh at 34.2.
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