A FURTHER 434 cases of Covid-19 have been reported by Irish health authorities this afternoon.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) also confirmed that four further people with Covid-19 have died.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan and Deputy CMO Dr. Ronan Glynn are holding a weekly Covid-19 briefing this afternoon.
Of the cases notified today:
Speaking at the briefing, Glynn said that four deaths is also the average number of deaths being reported at present.
He said that the reproduction number is “at or around 1″ and that “thankfully deaths and numbers in hospital and critical care are decreasing.”
The Department of Health says there are currently 126 Covid-19 patients in hospital with 34 patients in ICU, down two from yesterday.
“We are beginning to see more and more of the impact of vaccination obviously in those who’ve been vaccinated. All of that said, you need to be careful, we have seen a slight increase in the number of close contacts per case over the past week,” he said.
Holohan said that this should be borne in mind as businesses reopen over the coming weeks.
“Next week we will see many more business open which means employees and customers will return to work and our economy will begin to restart in earnest. This is a very positive sign and a testament to the hard work of the vast majority in supressing incidence of disease in our communities,” he said.
It is extremely important that business owners, employees and customers take great care and review safety protocols and practices and ensure to consider all the actions we can all take as individuals to protect ourselves and our loved ones.
The latest vaccination figures from the HSE show that, as of Wednesday, 1,233,067 people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine while 467,471 have received two doses.
A total of 42,974 vaccinations took place on Wednesday.
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