Teenager among 101 Covid deaths confirmed by Nphet
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan: "Although we have seen great improvement in the level of infection being reported, we have a long way to go and incidence needs to decline much further." Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has confirmed the deaths of 101 people from Covid-19, the highest number of deaths announced in a day since the pandemic began.
The grim milestone came alongside news of another 879 cases of the coronavirus, the first time the daily rate has fallen below the 1,000 mark in over a month.
Of the 101 deaths, 83 occurred in January and another 18 occurred in February. The oldest person to die was 103 and the youngest was aged just 19.
The latest daily toll means there has now been a total of 3,418 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland since the pandemic began.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “This is the highest number of deaths we have reported on any single day of the Covid-19 pandemic so far.
"The high mortality we are experiencing as a country at the moment is related to the surge of infection we saw several weeks ago, and the hospitalisations and admissions to ICU that followed as a direct result.
"The best way to honour those who have died from Covid-19, and those who loved them or provided care for them, is to follow the public health advice. Stay at home unless absolutely necessary, and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to do the same.
“What we can have control over today is the outlook of this disease in the weeks to come. Your positive actions matter, and they add up at a collective level. Please keep it up.”
As for the latest 879 confirmed cases of Covid-19, 383 were in Dublin, 79 in Cork, 53 in Galway, 40 in Limerick, 43 in Meath and the remaining 290 cases were spread across 20 other counties.
It means there have been 198,424 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland, driven by the huge volume of cases that have been confirmed since the turn of the year.
There have been 21,668 confirmed cases of the virus here in the past fortnight alone.
As of 2pm on Tuesday, 1,388 Covid-19 patients were in hospital, of which 207 are in ICU. There had been 45 additional hospitalisations in the previous 24 hours.
The most up-to-date data shows Monaghan as the county with the highest 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population, at more than double the national average, ahead of Waterford and then Carlow. Roscommon, Leitrim and Kerry had the lowest 14-day incidence of the virus.
Vaccination figures valid up until January 31 has shown nearly 200,000 people have received the jab, 150,500 people have received the first dose and 49,300 have received the second.
The latest Covid case numbers and fatalities come as the Dáil health committee has heard one third of care home deaths related to virus happened in January this year.
Dr Kathleen MacLellan, Assistant Secretary, Social Care Division, Department of Health said 369 nursing home residents died in January from a total of 1,543 since March.
There were also 4,300 cases between residents and staff identified as rising levels of infection impact staffing, putting further pressure on the nursing homes.
HSE officials said about 2,000 nursing home staff are currently on Covid-leave.
Meanwhile, attempts to introduce mandatory hotel quarantine for international arrivals in Ireland will require new primary legislation, Cabinet has been told.
The meeting of the Government on Tuesday was told the requirement will mean a "short" delay to the enactment of the requirements, announced last week.
The Government last week agreed that those who do not provide negative pre-departure PCR Covid-19 test, as well as all who arrive from Brazil and South Africa, will face mandatory 14-day quarantine due to fears about new variants of the virus in those countries.
The legal requirement for other passengers to quarantine for 14 days at home can however be dealt with within current public health regulation.
The legislation on quarantine comes as the CMO dampened expectations of foreign holidays this summer.
Dr Holohan has stressed that holidays are considered non-essential travel.
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