Three further Covid-19 related deaths and 457 additional cases have been confirmed in the Republic of Ireland.
There is no breakdown of cases by county this weekend.
There has now been a total of 4,718 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
There is now a total of 238,148 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
As of April 1st, 893,375 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:
- 636,963 people have received their first dose.
- 256,412 people have received their second dose.
Younger people are becoming very sick with Covid-19, with around half of patients in critical care under the age of 60 according to a leading intensive care doctor.
The latest figures from the Government's Covid-19 data hub show that as of 8am on Saturday there were 242 people with the virus in hospital. There were 65 people in intensive care with Covid-19 as of 7.30pm yesterday.
Dr Catherine Motherway, an intensive care consultant at University Hospital Limerick, told Newtalk that hospital numbers are coming down but not fast enough.
“We still have a significant burden of disease in the ICUs and with case numbers at 500 every day, unfortunately, some of those people will get sick and require our services,” Dr Motherway said.
“The best way to bring out numbers down is to bring the transmission of the disease down, but also the vaccination programme will ultimately make a difference to our numbers too,” she added.
