THE NUMBER OF people in hospital with Covid-19 now stands at 260.

The figure represents a slight increase on previous days but it still broadly in line with a trend of decreasing pressure on Ireland’s healthcare system over recent weeks, with 10 admissions and five discharges in the past day.

The number of people in intensive care with the virus stood at 58 as of 8am, the lowest figure since early January. There were six discharges and one admission in the preceding 24 hours.

Last night health authorities confirmed 457 new cases of Covid-19 and three further deaths.

Meanwhile Friday was another record day for Ireland’s vaccine rollout, with a total of 30,503 doses administered across the country.

This is an increase of more than 3,000 on the previous record of 27,915 set the previous day.
13.76% of Ireland’s population has now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, above the EU average of 12.5%.

 The head of the HSE, Paul Reid, praised it as a “new phase” of the rollout.

However, tensions continue to simmer over changes to Ireland’s vaccine sequence, with reports today that teaching unions will consider balloting for industrial action over their removal from the priority list.

In Northern Ireland, 89 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed, and two further deaths of people with the virus.