PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS have confirmed that eight more people have died with Covid-19 in Ireland.

Additionally, 6,888 more cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed, according to the latest figures from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

The total number of Covid-19 cases since the first outbreak of the virus here last year now stands at 147,613.

The number of people who have died has reached 2,344.

Of the cases notified today, 3,252 are among men and 3,595 are among women.

60% of the cases are in people under 45 years of age and the median age is 38 years old.

2,088 are in Dublin, 862 in Cork, 469 in Limerick, 405 in Wexford, 320 in Waterford and the remaining 2,744 cases are spread across all other counties.

The national 14-day incidence rate of Covid-19 in Ireland has risen to 1,291.2 cases per 100,000 people around the country.

The highest 14-day incidence rates remain in Monaghan and Louth, with 2,525 and 2,201.2 cases per 100,000 respectively.

In Dublin, where 2,088 new cases were confirmed today the incidence rate is at 1,477.4 per 100,000.

On Monday, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that around 35,000 people would receive the Covid-19 vaccine this week.

In a statement to TheJournal.ie today, the HSE said that it will be publishing reports on the uptake of the vaccine.

“As the programme has just started the data is being collated and validated; it will be reported and published by the HSE at a later date,” the HSE said.

“Currently the vaccines administered data is being reported on a weekly basis at the HSE Covid-19 media briefing (every Thursday).”

Hospitals

There have been 100 additional hospitalisations of patients with a confirmed case of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the number to 1,452.

125 Covid-19 patients are in ICU.

As the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 rises, private hospitals have started to take urgent non-coronavirus patients after a “surge capacity” agreement was finalised during the weekend.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid told RTÉ’s This Week that “already this week, private hospitals are taking some urgent non-Covid care… we have in essence triggered those processes already”.

Yesterday, there were nine deaths and 4,824 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed in Ireland, including 1,049 cases in Dublin.