Dramatic collapse in Covid-19 cases in nursing homes and among hospital staff

As more than 359,616 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine has been administered in Ireland, there has been a dramatic collapse in cases of the virus in nursing homes and among hospital staff,

HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said this is likely due to the effectiveness of the vaccine.

He said that at the peak a number of weeks ago, there was upwards of 1,000 hospital staff being infected in a given week, but that this has dropped in the past couple of weeks to 95 and then 50.

As of Tuesday, 226,291 people have received their first dose of the vaccine and 133,325 people have received their second dose.

Meanwhile a further 613 new cases of Covid-19, 34 of them in Westmeath and 5 in Roscommon, have been confirmed in Ireland by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

A further 35 people confirmed to have Covid-19 had died. 21 of these deaths occurred in February, 12 occurred in January, one in November, while one further death is under investigation.

The median age of those who died was 85 years, and the age range was 53-102 years.

The death toll from Covid-19 in Ireland is 4,271, and the total number of confirmed cases is now at 217,478.

Of the cases notified today, 66% are under 45 years of age and the median age is 34, 308 are men / 304 are women, 66% are under 45 years of age and the median age is 34 years old.

There were 224 cases in Dublin, 39 in Limerick, 37 in Meath, 34 in Westmeath, 33 in Offaly and the remaining 246 cases are spread across all other counties.

As of 8am today, there are 591 Covid-19 patients in hospital, of which 138 are in ICU. There have been 20 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.