Coronavirus: No New Deaths And 582 New Cases Confirmed

National news updates on Thursday 18th March.

Latest figures:

No Covid-related deaths have been reported today, while there are 582 new cases. 

156 of the cases are in Dublin, with 23 in Meath, 19 in Donegal, 15 in Louth, 14 in Kildare and the remaining 198 cases are spread across 20 other counties.  

36 are in the midlands - 19 in Offaly, 12 in Westmeath and five in Laois. 

There are 345 patients in hospital with Covid, which includes 83 in intensive care. 

Professor Philip Nolan, who chairs NPHET's modelling group, says the situation is very concerning:

Overseas travel:

The founder and chair of airline Cityjet believes people will be able to travel abroad this summer. 

It's after the EU announced plans to create a vaccine passport, to help restore freedom of movement within the bloc for citizens.

The Irish Government's advice remains that no non-essential travel can take place.

The digital certificate will show if a person has been vaccinated against Covid-19, received a negative test result or recovered from the virus.

Pat Byrne of Cityjet claims travel is now looking more likely: 

Making time up on Astra:

The Taoiseach has said time can be made up on the vaccination programme if doctors get the green light to resume using AstraZeneca. 

The European Medicines Agency is due to issue a final decision on use of the vaccine today.

It comes after vaccinations with AstraZeneca were paused in several countries after reports of blood clots developing in a small number of vaccinated people. 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin says if Ireland gets the go ahead to resume using the jab, time can be made up:

Ireland is one of a number of countries that chose to pause the roll out of the AstraZeneca vaccine. 

The EMA advised countries that they could continue to issue the vaccine while it carried out a safety review.

Euronews Political Editor Darren McCaffrey says it was an odd decision to ignore the advice from the EMA. 

Danish study:

A large-scale study in Demark has found that Covid-19 re-infections are rare, but more common for people over the age of 65.

It found older people only had 47 percent protection against repeat infection, compared with 80 percent for younger people. 

Researchers say their findings highlight the importance of measures to protect elderly people in the pandemic - including social distancing and priority for the vaccine. 

Help fight COVID-19 by wearing your mask properly. Together we can slow the spread of #COVID19 in Ireland.  
 
For more information on face coverings click here: https://t.co/Tu9I6ePgdt #StaySafe #HoldFirm pic.twitter.com/jtzm9R3Lq6

— HSE Ireland (@HSELive) March 17, 2021

Vaccination stats:

617,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Ireland, according to latest figures.

The numbers from the Department of Health are correct up to Sunday, and show 452,000 people have been given a 1st dose of an injection, while 164,000 have been fully inoculated against the disease.

Of the total vaccines given out more than 460,000 are Pfizer Bio-N-Tech, while 130,000 have been AstraZeneca.

Protests:

Protests held across Dublin city yesterday passed off largely peacefully.

A major policing operation was in place with checkpoints manned at locations coming into and through the city and scenes of violence from far right groups that had been feared  did not materialise.

However, 21 people were arrested for breach of Covid regulations or public order offences

The protests were held on O'Connell Street, at RTE headquarters in Donnybrook, and at Herbert Park in Dublin 4.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said it was up to the left to provide a voice for those frustrated with lockdown:

Vaccine passport:

Travel agents say the EU's vaccine passport system is the light at the end of the tunnel their industry has been waiting for. 

The Green Pass will also be able to store proof someone's already had Covid-19 or details of a negative test. 

But it will be up to individual member-states to decide what public health restrictions to waive. 

Pat Dawson, president of the Irish Travel Agents' Association, says there will be three options:

OAPs start streaming:

There's been a significant increase in subscriptions to streaming services among the over 65.

A new report has found he report found that 43% of that demographic reported having access to at least one video on demand service, up 27pc on 2019.

Older people are also more likely to watch on a tablet or laptop rather than the mobile preferred by the younger cohort.

John Kehoe from auditors Deloitte who conducted the survey said the younger demographics were more willing to fork out for ad-free content:

EU vs. UK on vaccine supply:

The British government is accusing the EU of "brinkmanship" in its threat to stop vaccine exports leaving the bloc. 

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says Article 122 of the EU Treaty may be used -- up to and including seizing facilities and suspending patent rights. 

The emergency clause can only be invoked where there's "severe difficulties" in the supply of products. 

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says he expects the EU to allow contracts be honoured. 

But Fine Gael's European Affairs spokesman Neal Richmond says it's the right call from the Commission:

Domestic holidays "unlikely":

Domestic travel for holidays and summer trading season for restaurants is "likely not to happen" if Ireland relies on lockdown alone to suppress Covid-19. 

That's according to a public health expert, who says the HSE's ambitions about expanding contact tracing are far too limited. 

557 more people have tested positive for the virus, and 17 more patients have died. 

Professor Anthony Staines says even with high vaccine uptake among the very elderly, there are still hundreds of thousands of people at high risk of serious illness.:

Decision on AstraZeneca:

Europe's medicines regulator will meet later to decide whether any extra precautions are needed to use the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19. 

A dozen countries stopped using it as a temporary precaution following a small cluster of blood clotting cases which emerged last weekend. 

Ireland's vaccines board called a halt to the use of the AstraZeneca product here on Sunday after the European Medicines Agency launched a rapid review. 

It followed a notification from Norway that Four patients who had received it later suffered blood clots in the brain -- one of whom died. 

It means 30-thousand vaccine doses which would have been administered this week remain in storage. 

The EMA says "many thousands" of Europeans develop blood clots every year naturally. 

It says the number which took place after people got the AZ shot are no higher than expected -- and the protection it offers against Covid-19 far outweighs the risk of any side-effects. 

Its safety committee will meet later this morning to make a final decision on whether any extra precautions need to be taken. 

It'll brief the press on its findings this afternoon.