THE NUMBER OF people in hospital with Covid-19 last night fell to the lowest level since New Year’s Eve.

There were 494 patients in hospital at 8pm last night, the first time this number has fallen below 500 so far in 2021. It has also fallen significantly since a peak of 2,020 cases in mid-January.

The number of people receiving care in an ICU has also steadily fallen in recent weeks, with 115 patients in intensive care last night.

At a briefing of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) last evening, Professor Philip Nolan said the continued decrease in hospital admissions is a “sign that we are coming to the end of this period of the pandemic”.

He outlined that hospital admissions have reduced from an average of 40 per day two weeks ago to an average of 25 admissions per day by today.

However, progress in driving daily case numbers has slowed down. A further 687 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed yesterday, along with one further death. 

Dr Ronan Glynn reiterated calls for people to stick with the ongoing restrictions over the coming weeks to drive down numbers further. 

He said: “While the number of daily cases and the number of people in hospital and critical care remain high, we continue to make progress.

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“In the last 24 hours, we have had no new admissions to critical care, the first time this has happened since St Stephen’s Day.

“This is one more tangible signal of the efforts that people continue to make and how those efforts are impacting positively on the trajectory of Covid-19 in Ireland.

“Please stick with this over the coming weeks.”