Covid-19 Friday: 10 deaths, 646 new cases

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 10 additional deaths related to Covid-19.

Four deaths occurred in March, 1 in February, 1 in January and four are under investigation.

The median age of those who died was 67 years and the age range was 41 - 83 years.

There has been a total of 4,518* Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Thursday 11th March, the HPSC has been notified of 646 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 225,820** confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

• 311 are men / 332 are women
• 74% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 30 years old
• 243 in Dublin, 80 in Kildare, 45 in Meath, 35 in Galway, 34 in Offaly and the remaining 209 cases are spread across 20 other counties***.

As of 8am today, 344 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 87 are in ICU. 16 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of March 9th, 553,161 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

• 396,089 people have received their first dose
• 157,072 people have received their second dose

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.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, has welcomed today’s announcement from the European Commission that the Covid-19 vaccine made by Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, has been authorised for use across Member States, including Ireland.

Minister Donnelly said: “Today is another significant and positive day in our country’s response to Covid-19 as we see the addition of a fourth Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.”

“This single-dose vaccine will significantly enhance the implementation of our vaccination programme and, together with those from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, it will play a very important role in protecting our population from Covid-19.”

“Ireland has an advance purchase agreement for 600,000 doses of the Janssen vaccine between April and June. Since our vaccination programme began late last year, I have always said that Ireland’s programme is only limited by supply. Our rollout plans are flexible and are designed to accommodate unforeseen events such as changes to supplies from manufacturers.”