Covid infections on the rise as 1,294 cases reported over weekend
Dr Maria Cronin with patient Donal Ring checking his vaccination record card.
The number of Covid infections is on the rise, the HSE chief has warned after 1,294 cases were confirmed over the weekend.
Paul Reid's warning came on Sunday evening as Nphet reported two deaths related to the virus, bringing the weekend total to 11.
Today, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has been notified of 769 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
Three-quarters of the cases confirmed today were under the age of 45.
Of the 769 cases confirmed today, 284 are located in Dublin, 67 in Donegal, 47 in Offaly, 45 in Meath and 44 in Kildare. The remaining 282 cases are spread across 20 other counties.
Monaghan is the only county not to record a new case today.
Offaly continues to have the highest incidence rate in the entire country at 410.5 - up from 388.7 yesterday.
The county's 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 is well over double the national rate of 155.3.
The county with the second-highest incidence rate is Longford with 296 - 114 lower than Offaly.
Almost 10% of the population have received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
The latest figures show, as of last Thursday 479,000 people have received one dose, an increase of just over 10,000 on the previous day.
The data shows 175,000 second doses have also been administered, bringing the overall total to more than 654,000.
It includes 504,000 Pfizer, 129,000 AstraZeneca and 20,000 Moderna.
A further 1,100 elderly patients received a Covid-19 vaccine at the hub in Dublin City University today.
GPs and their clinic teams administered around 3,000 doses there yesterday.
Some were in the over-85 group getting their second dose while patients aged 80 and up got their first.
Dr Ray Walley, GP advisor to the HSE, says they will be ready to go when vaccine supply ramps up in the weeks and months ahead.
"Nobody will be forgotten in this system, we will get to everybody. With the exception of the AstraZeneca vaccine which was on a pause, we are using all vaccines within a week of arriving in Ireland," said Dr Walley.
He said that GPs are administering vaccines within two or three days of the supply arriving.
HSE Chief Paul Reid has said an increase in hospital admissions this weekend is a cause of concern for health officials.
As of 8am this morning, there are 360 Covid-19 patients in hospitals around the country, of which 82 are in ICU. There were 19 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Mr Reid said that while hospitalisation figures have come down hugely, they been "stuck" in over the last few weeks.
"Overall, it has come down hugely well for us over the last few weeks from almost 2,000," he said.
"But we do need to remind ourselves, that that number of 360 is actually the same number of the peak of the second wave that we had.
"We're at no way near normal levels in our hospital."
While hospitalisation figures had come down for the past five or six weeks, Mr Reid said it was “worrying” that there was “a slight increase” this weekend.
“[That] would give us concern just around trends, particularly in line with some of the cases we're seeing come through this weekend, a slight rise in cases would give us concern.”
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