BREAKING: 63 Covid-19 related deaths among 3,569 new cases of virus

There have been 63 Covid-19 related deaths recorded this evening, the highest daily figure since the pandemic began.

There were also 3,569 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed this evening.

Of the deaths, five of these occurred in November and were recorded this week, while one occurred in December.

It brings the overall death toll as a result of the virus to 2,460. There have now been 159,144 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the country, according to the latest daily briefing from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

172 people are receiving intensive care treatment out of a total of 1,770 in hospital due to Covid-19. This is more in ICU than at any point during the pandemic.

Despite the continuing surge in the number of deaths, Dr Tony Holohan said there are reasons to be optimistic.

“We are seeing some early signs of progress with daily case numbers and positivity rates.

“We can take some hope from them, but we have a long, long way to go.

“In the coming weeks ahead, we will need to draw upon our reserves of resilience from springtime as we can expect to see hospitalisations, admissions to ICU and mortality related to COVID-19 increase day on day,” Dr Holohan concluded.

The breakdown of the latest cases is as follows: 1,119 are in Dublin, 416 in Cork, 200 in Galway, 182 in Louth, 169 in Waterford, and the remaining 1,483 cases are spread across all other counties, including 59 further infections in Kilkenny.