Rise in Covid cases 'not translating into hike in hospitalisations'

The Department of Health has today been notified of 2,180 new cases of Covid-19 - the highest daily figure since late January.

There are 406 people being treated in hospital, down seven since yesterday.

The number of people in intensive care units is 71, down two.

The chief clinical officer with the HSE, Dr. Colm Henry, confirmed the risk of virus cases translating into hospitalisations has greatly weakened.

There are three positive cases in Mayo University Hospital today.

"The link between cases and harm has been severely weakened, not completely broken. That is down to the vaccine programme," he explained.

Dr Henry said Ireland is in a much better position in the fight against Covid now than in previous surges of the virus because of what he described as a "vaccine floodwall".

He added the extraordinary vaccine uptake across all age groups has helped put the country in a better position and has given huge protection against serious illness.

Meanwhile, statistics published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre revealed the number of positive cases identified in Mayo since the outbreak of the pandemic last year now exceeds 10,000.