Covid: 55 deaths, 827 new cases with 17 in Mayo

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 55 additional deaths related to Covid-19.

A total of 36 of these deaths occurred in February, 18 of these in occurred in January, and the date of one death remains under investigation.

The median age of those who died is 86 years and the age range is 49-100 years.

As of midnight on Friday the HPSC was notified of 827 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 202,548.

They include 17 in Mayo, now with 510 in the past two weeks.

It gives the county a 14-day incidence rate of 380 - the seventh highest in the country and above the national average of 345.6.

Mayo's five-day moving average is 27.4.

Of the other cases notified today:

409 are men and 416 are women

63% are under 45 years of age

the median age is 38 years old

297 are in Dublin, 76 in Cork, 56 in Galway, 46 in Wexford, 37 in Kildare and the remaining 315 cases are spread across all other counties

As of 2 p.m. today, 1,177 Covid patients were hospitalised, 177 in ICU. There have been 29 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, said: "There are a few old habits that collectively we have to break in order to suppress Covid-19 together.

"We know that people who feel unwell typically avoid calling their GP over the weekend, and wait to see if they improve.

"You should no longer do that – you must phone your GP at the first sign of anything like Covid-19 symptoms. Do not adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach.

"Similarly, do not leave your house or go to work if you have any cold or flu like symptoms at all.

"Breaking these habits will limit Covid-19’s opportunity to spread from person to person."