COVID-19: 8 deaths and 309 new cases - 15 in Waterford

New Covid-19 infections fell by over a fifth last week -- with NPHET now saying there are clear signs transmission is down.
The latest data shows 309 more people have contracted the virus, and eight more patients are confirmed to have died.
15 of the new cases diagnosed are in Waterford, bringing the county's 14-day incidence rate to 68 cases in 100,000 people.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly's called it the "most positive" briefing he's had from officials in "a long time".
The reproduction number's estimated at between zero-point seven and one.
This evening's statement in full reads as follows:
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 8 additional deaths related to COVID-19.
Of the deaths reported today, 4 occurred in April, 2 occurred in February and 2 occurred in January or earlier.
The median age of those who died was 79 years and the age range was 43-92 years.
There has been a total of 4,820 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of midnight, Wednesday 14^th April, the HPSC has been notified of 309 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
There has now been a total of 242,402* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
Of the cases notified today:

• 168 are men / 141 are women
• 71% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 35 years old
• 107 in Dublin, 30 in Kildare, 14 in Offaly, 21 in Meath,14 in Limerick and the remaining 104 cases are spread across 18 other counties**

As of 8am today, 184 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 51 are in ICU. 22 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of April 13^th, 2021, 1,094,964 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

• 769,721 people have received their first dose
• 325,243 people have received their second dose

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community including daily data on Ireland’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.

ENDS//

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 12 confirmed cases. The figure of 242,402 confirmed cases reflects this.

**County data should be considered provisional as the national Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting System (CIDR) is a dynamic system and case details are continually being validated and updated.

• 7-day incidence 57.0
• 5-day moving average 358

Today’s cases, 5-day moving average of new cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 14^th April 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

~The 5-day moving average of the number of new cases provides an appropriate indicator of current daily case numbers within a county. It takes account of any validation of cases for previous days and smooths out daily/weekend fluctuations in case numbers.