Covid: 90 deaths, 928 new cases with 31 in Mayo
"We have identified six additional cases linked to the Southern African variant of concern"
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 90 additional deaths related to Covid-19.
Up to 89 deaths occurred in January, and there is one death where the date of death is under investigation.
The median age of those who died is 83 years and the age range is 48-99 years.
There has been a total of 3,066 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of midnight on Monday the HPSC registered 928 confirmed cases, bringing the total to 189,851.
They include 31 in Mayo, now with 1,093 in the past two weeks.
Mayo's five-day moving average is 48.
It gives the county a 14-day incidence rate of 841.1 - the fifth highest in the country and above the national average of 721.1.
Of the cases notified today:
418 are men and 506 are women
50% are under 45 years of age
the median age is 44 years old
257 in Dublin, 115 in Cork, 71 in Louth, 53 in Galway, 45 in Limerick and the remaining 387 cases are spread across all other counties
As of 2 p.m. today, 1,750 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, of which 216 were in ICU.
There have been 65 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: "Today we are reporting a further 90 deaths, bringing our cumulative total of lives lost to Covid-19 to more than 3,000 in Ireland.
"This highly infectious disease is having a severe impact on the most vulnerable in our society and we must continue the good work we are doing to suppress it.
"The decline in daily incidence of Covid-19 has begun, however the volume of disease in our communities remains very high.
"To date we have reported 96,000 cases in January 2021, which has already passed the total of 93,500 cases reported in 2020.
"Indeed, public health doctors in the midlands reported a total of 4,000 cases in the first eight months of 2020 and another 4,000 cases in the first four weeks of 2021.
"Through our enhanced public health surveillance programme, we have identified six additional cases linked to the Southern African variant of concern.
"All cases are being followed up by public health teams in line with the latest ECDC guidance published on 21 January.
"The downturn in incidence has been achieved through the determination of people across the country to stay at home, to work from home and to avoid meeting and socialising with others.
"It is imperative that everyone continues to strictly adhere to the public health advice to protect ourselves and our loved ones from this highly infectious disease."