Covid: 17 new cases pushes Mayo's 14-day incidence rate above 100
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of ten additional deaths related to Covid-19.
Seven deaths occurred in April, one in March, one in February and one in January.
The median age of those who died was 82 years and the age range was 62 - 104 years.
There has been a total of 4,866 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of midnight Wednesday the HPSC was notified of 617 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to of 245,310.
They include 17 in Mayo, now with a 14-day incidence rate of 100.4, below the national average of 118.1, after registering 131 new cases in the past two weeks.
The county's five-day moving average jumps to nine.
Of the other cases notified today:
299 are men and 318 are women.
70% are under 45 years of age..
the median age is 33 years old
236 in Dublin, 84 in Donegal, 37 in Kildare, 34 in Tipperary, 30 in Offaly and the remaining 196 cases are spread across 20 other counties.
As of 8 a.m. today, 176 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, of which 48 were in ICU.
There have been 19 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: "We are in a strong position in that transmission levels have reduced substantially and the roll-out of vaccination is protecting more and more of those at risk from the severe effects of Covid-19.
"If we can maintain our current position there is hope that we can look forward to a real easing of measures, but it is as important as ever that we don’t put that progress at risk by letting our collective guard down too much, or too early."
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group said: "The R number is estimated as being very close to 1.0.
"We continue to keep close contacts at 2.6 – a phenomenal testament to the public in keeping social transmission low.
"All indicators of the disease are stable or declining slowly, though we may see an increase in cases over the coming days.
"Maintaining this over the coming weeks is key to managing community transmission, and a move towards easing of measures."
Professor Martin Cormican, Clinical Lead for Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control, HSE and Professor of Bacteriology at NUI Galway said: "The benefits of vaccination in nursing homes and long-term residential care facilities are now very clear with a dramatic drop in the number of residents and staff developing severe disease.
"New visitation guidance agreed by NPHET today represents another step to support residents in long term residential care facilities in maintaining meaningful relationships with their family and friends.
"From 4 May, nursing home residents - in which most residents are fully vaccinated - can expect four visits with two people per week."
Latest update on vaccines
As of last Tuesday (April 20) there have been 1,240,965 doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered in Ireland:
878,823 people have received their first dose.
362,142 people have received their second dose.