213 PATIENTS WITH Covid-19 are in hospital this morning.

The latest update on Ireland’s Covid-19 hub shows that 53 Covid-19 patients are in ICU as of 11.30am.

Five were admitted to ICU in the last 24 hours, while four others were discharged.

Seven new patients with a confirmed case of Covid-19 were admitted to hospital and 12 were released.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said that Ireland has “come through a very challenging period over the last few months, but we are continuing to make really good progress”.

“We’ve seen a reduction in the number of cases reported and pretty much all the indicators are going in the right direction right now,” Donnelly said.

“People are making a huge sacrifice in order for us to stay on course by following the public health guidelines and we’ve got to stick with it.”

Yesterday, 208 patients with Covid-19 were in hospital, including 52 in ICU.

Public health officials confirmed 455 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths last night.

Three of the deaths occurred in April, one in March, six in February and four in January.

The people who died range in age from 55 to 90.

From tomorrow, some of the Level 5 restrictions that we’ve lived with over the last three and a half months are set to be pulled back. 

The 5km limit on travel outside the home is being replaced by permission to travel within a person’s county and a 20km radius from where they live.

Two households are to be allowed meet outside for recreation, but with social distancing and not in private gardens.

Construction on homes is restarting and secondary school students from first to fourth year – who have not physically been in school since before Christmas – are returning to classrooms.

“We’re continuing to make steady progress and it is as important as ever as we begin to reopen society that we don’t let our guard down,” Donnelly said.

“Our vaccination programme hit a milestone this week with over a million vaccines administered,” the minister said.

“We’ll continue to see the positive impact it will have for everyone – already the benefits are really evident, with cases in nursing homes and hospitals and among healthcare workers falling really dramatically,” he said.

“There are much brighter days ahead, so please continue to stick with the public health measures so we don’t give this virus the opportunity to start surging again.”

As of Friday, 9 April, 1,045,919 vaccines against Covid-19 have been administered in Ireland, including 735,997 first doses and 309,922 second doses.

Most of these – 767,537 – are the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, along with 230,892 doses of AstraZeneca and 47,490 of Moderna.