LAST UPDATE | 26 Jan 2021

A FURTHER 928 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Ireland, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has said this evening.

In a statement, it said that a further 90 people confirmed to have Covid-19 have died. NPHET said 89 of these deaths occurred in January. 

These latest figures confirm that more than 3,000 people have died in Ireland with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. 

The total number of cases now stands at 189,851, while the death toll is 3,066. 

NPHET said this evening that six additional cases are linked to the South African variant of the virus. 

As of 2pm today, 1,750 patients with Covid-19 were hospitalised. Of these, 216 are in ICU. 

Within today’s new cases, half are in people under 45 years of age. 257 of the new cases are in Dublin, 115 in Cork, 71 in Louth, 53 in Galway, 45 in Limerick and the remaining 387 cases are spread across all other counties.

In a statement, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “Today we are reporting a further 90 deaths, bringing our cumulative total of lives lost to Covid-19 to more than 3,000 in Ireland.

“This highly infectious disease is having a severe impact on the most vulnerable in our society and we must continue the good work we are doing to suppress it.

“The decline in daily incidence of Covid-19 has begun, however the volume of disease in our communities remains very high. To date we have reported 96,000 cases in January 2021, which has already passed the total of 93,500 cases reported in 2020. Indeed, public health doctors in the Midlands reported a total of 4,000 cases in the first 8 months of 2020 and another 4,000 cases in the first four weeks of 2021.

“Through our enhanced public health surveillance programme, we have identified 6 additional cases linked to the Southern African variant of concern. All cases are being followed up by public health teams in line with the latest ECDC guidance published on the 21st January.”

Deaths of people with Covid-19 are not reported in real time but may have occurred 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.

Earlier today, the government announced that the country will remain under the current Level 5 restrictions until 5 March at the earliest. 

A further tightening of incoming travel was also confirmed, including mandatory 14-day quarantine in hotels for arrivals from ‘high-risk areas’ such as Brazil and South Africa and those without a negative PCR test.

The government also said that those entering the country from non ‘high-risk’ areas will be required to self-isolate at home by law for the first time.

With reporting from Cónal Thomas