20 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Meath today

A further 20 cases of Covid-19 were reported in Meath this afternoon with a total of 434 cases of the virus nationwide.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) also confirmed that four further people with Covid-19 have died.

The Department of Health says there are currently 126 Covid-19 patients in hospital with 34 patients in ICU, down two from yesterday. There have been 15 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of last Wednesday (5th May) there have been 1,700,538 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Ireland: 1,233,067 people have received their first dose and 467,471 people have received their second dose.

Of the cases notified today:

221 are men / 212 are women

80% are under 45 years of age

The median age is 31 years old

197 are in Dublin, 44 in Cork, 34 in Kildare, 20 in Limerick, 20 in Meath and the remaining 119 cases are spread across 16 other counties.

Speaking at the briefing, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn said that four deaths is the average number of deaths being reported at present.

He said that the reproduction number is “at or around 1″ and that “thankfully deaths and numbers in hospital and critical care are decreasing.”

“We are beginning to see more and more of the impact of vaccination obviously in those who’ve been vaccinated. All of that said, you need to be careful, we have seen a slight increase in the number of close contacts per case over the past week,” he said.