LATEST: 1,361 new cases of virus confirmed
A further 1,361 people have contracted the coronavirus, the Department of Health confirmed this evening.
That’s a decrease of 47 from Wednesday’s total.
The number of people currently being treated for Covid-19 in hospital has risen to 160 an increase of eight on yesterday’s figures.
Some 26 patients are now in ICU, the same as yesterday’s total.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, said: “We have to continue to drive up vaccination rates as high as possible. The higher we go the better the protection we have and the sooner we’ll be able to ease more of the economic and social restrictions that still remain in place.”
“Walk-in vaccination centres are opening across the country, anyone over 16 years of age can register for a COVID-19 vaccine. Encourage your friends and family to ensure they get reliable information about the vaccines available here and to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”
“For our exhausted healthcare workers, the winter months ahead mean flu, other respiratory infection admissions alongside the backlog of scheduled and unscheduled care that has been disrupted due to COVID-19. We owe it to them to continue to maintain the basic personal public health protections,” Dr Holohan concluded.
