James Cox
48 further Covid-19 related deaths and 1,254 additional cases have been confirmed in the Republic of Ireland today.
Of the confirmed deaths, 45 occurred in January.
The median age of those who died is 82 years and the age range is 30-99.
There has been a total of 3,214 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of midnight Thursday, January 28th, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has been notified of 1,254 confirmed cases of Covid-19.
There is now a total of 193,892 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
34 new cases have been confirmed in Waterford. The 5-day moving average for Waterford is now 48.
Waterford has the 3rd highest 14-day incidence rate in the country, it's 788 per 100,000 people.
Of the cases notified today:
- 587 are men/658 are women.
- 54 per cent are under 45 years of age.
- The median age is 42 years old.
- 437 cases are in Dublin, 146 in Cork, 76 in Meath, 69 in Wexford, 62 in Kildare and the remaining 464 cases are spread across all other counties.
As of 2pm today, 1,518 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 211 are in ICU. 51 additional Covid-19 cases have been reported in Irish hospitals in the past 24 hours.
Meanwhile, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has confirmed Ireland will receive its first shots of AstraZeneca and Oxford University's Covid-19 vaccine during the week beginning February 8th after its approval by Europe's medicines regulator.
“The contract was to get it on the week of February 15th but I can confirm now for the first time that it's been agreed that we'll get it in the week of February 8th,” Mr Donnelly told Newstalk.
He added that the State's regulators will decide in a few days if the vaccine should be given to people over the age of 65 after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded there were not yet enough results for those aged over 55 to determine how well the vaccine would work for this group.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is considered particularly important as it is easier to store and transport, and can be administered in a single dose.
