102 new Covid-19 cases in Meath

A further 102 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Meath today as health officials confirmed 1,000 new cases and three more deaths in Ireland.

Meath has now had 410 new cases confirmed over the past three days and has had a total of 1,760 since the start of the pandemic.

The total number of confirmed cases is now 47,427 and there have been 1,841 deaths from the virus.

Of the cases notified today:

478 are men and 520 are women

71 per cent are under 45 years of age

The median age is 31 years old

254 in Dublin, 102 in Meath, 88 in Cork, 81 in Cavan, 75 in Galway and the remaining 400 cases are spread across 20 counties.

As of 2pm today, 246 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 30 are in ICU. There have been 13 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “Case numbers are continuing to rise. Right now, we need everyone to cut their social contacts to an absolute minimum. Every time you physically interact with another person, you are providing an opportunity for the virus to spread.”

Over 100,000 tests have been completed in the last seven days, with 17,758 in the last 24 hours. There is a test positivity rate of 7 per cent over the last seven days, which compares to an overall positivity rate of 3.7 per cent.