Kenneth Fox
A further 358 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed by the Department of Health this evening.
They said there are currently 39 in people in ICU with Covid-19 and a further 102 in hospital with the virus.
As of midnight, Monday 17th May, the @hpscireland has been notified of 358* confirmed cases of #COVID19.
39 in ICU. 102 in hospital.
*Daily case numbers may change due to future data validation.— Department of Health (@roinnslainte) May 18, 2021
As of May 11th, a total of 1,922,913 Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the State. This includes 1,408, 105 people who have received a first dose of the vaccine and 514,808 people who have received a second dose.
The figures come as the HSE is still trying to get their IT systems back online after a major cyber attack occurred last Friday.
It comes as more than 100,000 HSE staff may not get paid this Thursday, as the health service's payment system remains out of action as a result of the recent ransomware attack.
As the Irish Examiner reports, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly confirmed that the HSE payment system is down as a result of the attack.
He said getting it back up and running to ensure HSE staff are paid is now “an absolute priority”.
He also confirmed that some of the 146,000 people working in the HSE are due to be paid on Thursday.
The HSE has said that contingency arrangements are already being actively worked on to mitigate any risk to payments that are due to staff later next week. At this stage, it says it is too early to say whether the HSE will need to use those contingency arrangements.
The health minister described the cyberattack on the HSE as “an attack on the Irish people, the health system and patients and their families”.
The individual reports being reported in the media were “heartbreaking” he told RTÉ radio’s News at One.
