Tomas Doherty
A further 47 deaths and 901 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the Republic.
Forty-four of these deaths occurred in February, two occurred in January and one in December.
Of the new cases, 437 were in Dublin, 49 in Limerick, 43 in Galway, 39 in Kildare, 32 in Meath and the remaining 301 spread across all other counties. There are 19 new cases in Waterford.
The latest figures show 771 Covid-19 patients are in hospital, with 151 in intensive care.
Monaghan has the highest incidence rate in the country at 420 cases per 100,000, followed by Offaly at 369 and Dublin at 352.
This comes as the head of the HSE said the pace of the country's exit from the Covid-19 third wave is going to be “longer and stickier” than previous waves, despite “good trends” overall in the fight against the virus.
Paul Reid said exiting this wave of the virus was going to be “a lot slower than the scale and pace than we entered it” because the virus was still transmitting at a “very risky level” across the community.
The HSE chief executive said people with Covid-19 were presenting much sicker to hospital and that once admitted they were staying longer in hospital and intensive care than in previous waves.
He said about 200 coronavirus patients were receiving advanced respiratory care on hospital wards.
But the number of people admitted to hospital with the virus had fallen by more than 25 per cent in the last week and ICU admissions were down 11 per cent.
Mr Reid told the HSE briefing on Thursday that more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of positive cases confirmed last week were close contacts of previously confirmed cases.
He said positivity rates at community testing sites ranged from 16 per cent to 20 per cent.
“It indicates to us that the levels we are at in the community are still of a concern… the virus is still transmitting at a very risky level across the community,” he said.
Vaccine rollout
Mr Reid said he understood the public’s frustration over the rollout of the vaccination programme but he said it had entered a new phase this week with people over the age of 85 being vaccinated.
As of Monday, a total of 280,581 doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered, comprising 182,193 first doses and 98,388 second doses.
Mr Reid said almost 110,000 jabs will be administered between Monday and Sunday next week.
Meanwhile, another six people have died with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, according to the region's Department of Health. An additional 342 cases were confirmed.
A total of 418 hospital inpatients were recorded at midnight, 51 were in intensive care this morning. – Additional reporting: PA
