The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 3 additional deaths related to COVID-19.
As of midnight, Wednesday March 24, the HPSC has been notified of 606 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 232,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
There has been a total of 4,631 related deaths in Ireland, two of the deaths occurred in March and one in February.
Of the cases notified today:
- 298 are men / 305 are women
- 75% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 33 years old
- 249 in Dublin, 57 in Donegal, 39 in Kildare, 32 in Meath, 31 in Louth and the remaining 198 cases are spread across 21 other counties
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As of 8am today, 312 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 75 are in ICU.
As of March 21 2021, 680,015 doses doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:
- 495,824 people have received their first dose
- 184,191 people have received their second dose
The national 14-day incidence rate currently stands at 159.5 cases per 100,000 people.
The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community including daily data on Ireland’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said that the “vast majority of people are making a huge sacrifice and missing time with loved ones in order for us to stay on course with the public health guidance”.
“However, we know that in the week ending 14 March, approximately one-in-ten people visited another household for social reasons, with most of these visits involving time spent indoors.
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“While this clearly demonstrates that the vast majority of people are sticking with the public health guidance, it does represent a significant change versus January when just one in 20 people were visiting other homes for social reasons.”
Earlier, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said it will be “very hard to see” the number of daily Covid-19 cases falling to below 500.
At least 1,400 people have accessed the five new walk-in centres today, as the latest service is free to avail of for anyone over 16, and no prior booking is required.
Centres were open today at Tallaght Stadium, Irishtown Stadium, Blanchardstown (National Aquatic Centre), Grangegorman (Primary Care Centre), and Spollens Car Park (Tullamore).
These centres are being put in place in areas where the number of daily new cases remains high and will provide more information for health officials to gain an understanding of why the virus is spreading so rapidly.
The aim is for between 300 and 500 tests to be carried out at each of these locations per day.
People can avail of the service, as long as they are over the age of 16, don’t have any symptoms but would like to be tested, and live within 5km of the centre.