Covid: Lowest number of cases reported in a single day since mid-December

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 14 additional deaths related to Covid-19.

Three deaths occurred in March, 10 in February and one in November.

There has been a total of 4,333 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight on Monday the HPSC has been notified of 359 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 220,630.

They include seven in Mayo, which has recorded 288 over the past two weeks.

It gives the county a 14-day incidence rate of 220.7 - above the national average of 201.2.

Of the other cases notified today:

157 are men and 193 are female.

66% are under 45 years of age.

The median age is 34 years old.

159 in Dublin, 25 in Westmeath, 21 in Louth, 21 in Galway, 19 in Meath and the remaining 114 cases are spread across 19 other counties.

As of 8 a.m. today, 498 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, 116 in ICU.

There have been 28 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Numbers of people vaccinated

As of last Saturday, there have been 435,895 doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered in Ireland.

294,550 people have received their first dose

141,345 people have received their second dose

Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: "While the low number of cases reported today may be attributable to a weekend effect, it is nevertheless very welcome and represents the lowest number of cases reported on a single day since mid-December.

"While we continue to make good progress in Ireland, globally in the past week the number of cases of Covid-19 has increased for the first time in seven weeks.

"We must not allow this virus the opportunity to do the same here.

"Please hold firm to the public health advice and together we can continue to protect and build on the progress we have made over the last two months."