Coronavirus: 13 More Deaths Confirmed

News updates for Saturday 27th February 2021.

Latest figures:

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 13 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

10 of these deaths occurred in February, 1 occurred in January, 1 occurred in October and 1 date of death remains under investigation.

The median age of those who died was 81 years and the age range was 55 - 92 years.

There has been a total of 4,313 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Friday 26th February, the HPSC has been notified of 738 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 218,980* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. 

Of the cases notified today:

• 356 are men / 378 are women
• 71% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 32 years old
• 311 in Dublin, 54 in Limerick, 36 in Cork, 34 in Offaly, 33 in Donegal and the remaining 270 cases are spread across 20 other counties. **

As of 8am today, 550 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 135 are in ICU. 27 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of February 24, 391,355 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

• 254,948 people have received their first dose
• 136,407 people have received their second dose

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community including daily data on Ireland’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 9 confirmed cases. The figure of 218,980 cases reflects this.

**County data should be considered provisional as the national Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting System (CIDR) is a dynamic system and case details are continually being validated and updated.

Today’s cases, 5-day moving average of new cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 26 February 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

~The 5-day moving average of the number of new cases provides an appropriate indicator of current daily case numbers within a county. It takes account of any validation of cases for previous days and smooths out daily/weekend fluctuations in case numbers.

• The 7 day incidence rate is 97.3
• The 5 day moving average is 655

Schools:

The Education Minister says Irish society has a 'burden of responsibility' to ensure schools can reopen as planned. 

Preparations are continuing this weekend to allow 300,000 students to go to class on Monday, for the first time since Christmas. 

Children in the first four years of primary school, along with leaving cert students, will all return. 

Other classes are due to return on a phased basis over the next six weeks, but Norma Foley says that's not certain to go ahead:

Travel:

Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane says ALL countries should be included on the Government's air travel list.

The Health Minister's added an extra 13 states to the list of 'high-risk' countries who's passengers must self-quarantine for 14 days.

20 states were already on the list, so the total has now come to 33 - the new countries are mainly from South America.

Deputy Culliane says all people arriving here on flights should have to quarantine:

Vaccine:

About 400 over-85s will receive their first Covid-19 vaccine in a dedicated hub in Cork today. 

A similar clinic operated in DCU last week, where over 1,000 people got their first dose. 

Today's clinic will take place in Munster Technological Institute in Cork.

Dr Mike Thompson is one of the GPs involved in the hub - he says today's clinic is the first of many:

Cases:

The number of Covid patients in hospital has fallen to its lowest level since New Year's Day. 

The number dropped to 528 last night, after a fall of nearly 100 in the past week. 

There are 135 Covid patients in ICU - down from 221 at the height of the third wave. 

But Dr Alan Gaffney, the vice-president of the Intensive Care Society, says ICUs are still extremely busy:

One year:

The Deputy Chief Medical Officer says it will take time for the country to heal and recover from the impact of Covid-19.

This weekend marks a year since the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the Republic.

Last night, 776 new cases were reported and 29 further deaths - bringing the death toll to 4,300.

Deputy CMO Ronan Glynn says it's been a difficult year for everyone, particularly those who've lost loved ones:

Local figures:

Another 29 people have died with Covid-19 and there are 776 new cases. 

One of the people who died was just 29 years old. 

278 of the cases are in Dublin, while 45 are in the midlands - 17 in Offaly, Laois has 15 and 13 in Westmeath. 

There are 574 Covid patients in hospital, with 136 in intensive care. 

Almost 4 hundred thousand vaccinations had been rolled out.