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PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS have confirmed an additional 3,955 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Ireland.
There have also been a further 28 deaths reported, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). 26 of the deaths occurred in January, while the date of death for two of the deaths is currently under investigation.
This now brings the death toll from Covid-19 in Ireland to 2,488, while there has been a total of 163,057 cases reported since the pandemic began.
There are currently 1,789 patients hospitalised with Covid-19, of which 169 are in ICU. There has been an additional 154 hospitalisations in the last 24 hours.
Of the cases notified today:
According to Professor Philp Nolan of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, 44% of all Covid-19 cases have been reported in the last 14 days.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said:
“Today we are giving some more information on the 208 people who have been reported to have sadly died from COVID-19 so far this month. Of these, 23 cases have been linked to outbreaks in hospitals and 38 with outbreaks in Nursing Homes.
The ages of those who have died range from 25 to 98 years. Every death associated with COVID-19 is a tragedy. We must cut our social contacts in order to break the chains of transmission and protect those who are most vulnerable to this disease. Stay at home and save lives.
Deaths of people with Covid-19 are not reported in real time but may have occured over a period of several days.
The number of deaths reported on a given day, therefore, does not necessarily mean that a person with Covid-19 died within the previous 24-hour period or even the preceding few days.
In the early days of the pandemic, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan urged families, despite the difficulty, to register their loved ones deaths as early as possible so that health officials could gain an accurate picture of mortality.
Essentially, there is a delay between when a person dies from Covid-19 and the National Public Health Emergency Team being informed of their passing.
Impact on health system
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said that Covid-19 is having a “significant impact” on the Irish health system, but that we can change that trajectory by following public health guidance.
“The best way we can protect ourselves and each other is by staying home and only leaving home for essential journeys. We have the power to change the trajectory of the disease in our communities. We must hold firm and continue to stay home.”
Professor Nolan has said that this wave of the virus is different to what Ireland has seen in the past.
“From an epidemiological perspective, what we are seeing in this wave is different to what we have seen since springtime, and perhaps worse. The penetration of the virus throughout all ages of the population is a particular cause for serious concern, as is risk of severe disease that all of these people face.
Poor health outcomes, risk of serious or long-term illness and hospitalisation remain a risk for us all when it comes to COVID-19. That is why we must follow public health advice and protect not only ourselves but our hospital system and healthcare workers by staying at home.
Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, Dr Cillian De Gascun has said that it isn’t unusual for a virus to mutate into different variants.
“We have identified multiple different SARS-CoV-2 lineages in Ireland since the start of the pandemic, and 2 of the 3 recently emerged variants of concern from the UK and South Africa. We also expect that more variants will emerge across the world in the coming months,” said De Gascun.
While some of the new variants will increase the risk of becoming infected because they have increased transmissibility – they can stick longer and better to surfaces – this does not mean that our continued adherence to the public health advice is in anyway less effective. We must continue to wash our hands, wear a face covering where appropriate, maintain our social distance and continue to adhere to the public health advice.
With reporting by Cónal Thomas
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This reads like a press release.
Wouldn’t be gone on the shopping centre there’s better shops in the retail parks surrounding it
Blackstone. That sounds familiar. Are they the same Blackstone who mercilessly hound people who get behind on the credit card payments? Perhaps after they spend too much in retail establishments?
@Neal Ireland Hello.: Athens end of the day if you can’t afford to pay it back, don’t get the credit card
@Neil yes it’s always someone else’s fault for getting into debt never their own doing
110 shoplifting day till Christmas.
@Pat Troy: So you’re counting down the days until you can go shoplifting? Okaaaay.
@Gary: read it again idiot.
I live right beside the center. It’s a bit Looney traffic wise on busy days alright but tons of parking etc. Great news that there may be up to 6000 jobs ! There is a new bridge approved and being built soon which will overhaul the traffic flows on the M3 approach so that’s a good thing for both local business and the center ! Welcome to B-Town !
Maybe they’ll finally put in a few toilets
@JohnBeeRyan: theres pretty large toilets on both levels in the main centre ? I presume you mean more toilets ?? , id prefer they spend a few quid on the approach roads entry / exit they are way too bottlenecked and coming and going can be a shambles if its at all busy.
@Dave Hammond: too bottlenecked? As in the is a such thing as a right amount of bottlenecked?
Awful news, this will be a serious threat to the smaller shopping centres in the region.
@alphanautica: hmm I fail to see how adding more retail and jobs to the general area is awful news , the centre attracts massive amount of people from many surrounding counties into the area , it is far better to see retail being expanded than migrating online which is a far bigger commercial threat to the other shopping centres you mention.
@alphanautica: its great news! Jobs will be created, there will be more choice for shoppers and the smaller centres will need to up their standards fo stay relevant.. long overdue! Roselawn Shopping Centre, for example, is atrocious!
@alphanautica: which shopping centres specifiically?
More traffic from lunatic shoppers as if it wasnt already bad enough…roll on next recession
This is not a good news story, yes the construction jobs is great of course but the retail jobs will just be taking from other locations be that locally or city centre. There is a finite amount of money to go around all these retail units. The planners need to look at this effect it happened in Naas they build a centre outside the town and the life is sucked out of the town itself now just lots of empty units.
There shouldn’t be any expansion allowed at blanch until the approach and exit ways from the town centre are updated and improved. Extra Parking needs to be looked at in a big way also. Every bank holiday weekend, christmas, new year sales, etc etc. Security staff block cars leaving giving priority to cars entering. In effect this means cars have to circle for half an hour or so to find a parking space. The whole surrounding area becomes one big parking lot. Nothing moves. I lived next door for 10 years so I know all about it. Only in Ireland would this be allowed. But Hey lets build more shops and outlets to satisfy some developers greed who also happens to give a few political donations. Don’t mind about the serfs. Don’t put in any pre-conditions that just might make things work better or might also affect their bottom line. We can’t have that. Politicians just make plenty of big empty promises come each election and once they’re in, they’re untouchable for 5 years and the pensions guaranteed, so business as usual. Meanwhile Leo employs a high profile PR firm to do the window dressing.
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