James Cox
A further 436 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the Republic of Ireland.
There are 101 Covid-19 patients being treated in Irish hospitals with 39 in ICU.
There have been eight Covid-19 related deaths in the past 12 days, the HSE has confirmed.
HSE Cyberattack
There had been no reports of Covid deaths since Friday, May 14th, due to the HSE cyberattack.
Speaking at a weekly briefing on Thursday, the HSE’s chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said there had been eight deaths from Covid-19 in the 12 days from the data breach to Wednesday.
This will bring the total number of Covid-19 deaths recorded in May to 43.
Dr Henry said the number of Covid-19 deaths had “collapsed” as a result of the vaccination programme starting with elderly people, as they are at a much higher risk of dying from the virus.
In the second week of January, there were 2,234 new Covid-19 cases among the over-75 age group.
In the last two weeks, there have been just 65 cases per week in that age group.
Hospitalisations
“Hospitalisations, deaths and outbreaks — anything associated with the vaccinated populations have collapsed,” Dr Henry said.
He said there is a “steady level” level of the disease at the moment, adding that it is mainly in the under-45s age group.
“The unvaccinated groups are younger people. It [the disease] still has the capacity to do harm, but less so than before.”
The Department of Health has also revised its Covid-19 figures since the cyberattack, in the 12 days since there were 5,133 new cases, an average of 428 a day.
This is 140 more cases than originally reported.
