THERE WERE 597 patients with Covid-19 in Irish hospitals as of yesterday evening, including 135 patients in intensive care.

This marks the first time in 2021 that the number of people being treated for Covid-19 in hospital fell below 600.

Ten Covid-19 patients being treated in ICU died in the 24 hours up to 8am yesterday – the single highest daily number of deaths of people with the virus in critical care since the pandemic began.

As of yesterday, 348 non-critical care beds were available in Irish hospitals, as were 36 critical care beds for adult and five for children.

Health officials yesterday confirmed that a further 56 people with Covid-19 died in Ireland.

31 of the 56 deaths reported yesterday occured in February, 13 happened in January, three in December or earlier, while a further nine are under investigation.

The deaths included a 16-year-old.

The total number of people with the virus in Ireland who have died now stands at 4,237.

The National Public Health Emergency Team also said that 574 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases in Ireland to date to 216,870.

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Travel

During a Dáil debate on mandatory quarantine legislation yesterday, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that around 1,000 to 3,500 people arrive in Ireland from abroad every day, while 10,500 people arrived at Dublin Airport last week.

The Cabinet last week signed off on plans to introduce mandatory hotel quarantine for passengers arriving from 20 countries or people arriving without a negative Covid-19 test.

Donnelly said that while the UK has implemented mandatory hotel quarantine, few other European countries have done so. He said Ireland’s approach as “fair and proportionate”.

Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall, however, said the failure to tackle international travel’s role in spreading Covid-19 is “one of the biggest failings of this government”.