PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS have confirmed 1,377 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

The Department of Health has reported that 78 patients with the illness are in hospital today, including 22 in intensive care.

Data relating to the number of deaths associated with the coronavirus disease, as well as case numbers by county, have been affected by the cyber attack on the HSE IT systems.

Yesterday there were 1,173 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Meanwhile, with some 110,673 vaccines administered yesterday, 73.8% of the population aged 16 or over have now received at least one dose,
60.6% are fully vaccinated, according to new data.

Yesterday, Chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Professor Philip Nolan called the rise in cases among those aged 16 to 18 “exceptional”.

In a video posted on the Department of Health’s Twitter page, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn said: “Unfortunately our incidence has now risen to over 180 per 100,000 cases and we’re reporting a five-day average of cases of over 800 cases per day, and that’s the highest it’s been since the beginning of February.”

There is a particularly high incidence rate among people aged 16 to 30, Glynn said.

“I know that people have taken great hope from the fact that our vaccination programme is rolling out really quickly”, he added. “Despite that we still have over two and a half million adults and children in this country who are not fully protected.”

He asked people who were not vaccinated to be “really careful about indoor settings”.