Vaccination centre at Simonstown to operate 12 hours a day

The HSE is preparing to ramp up vaccinations to 12 hours a day at Simonstown, Navan this week.

From tomorrow (Wednesday), the vaccination centre at Simonstown will begin operating 12 hours a day and from next Sunday, will begin vaccinating seven days a week.

Last week, 1,867 were vaccinated in Simonstown bringing the total number vaccinated at the Navan centre to 4305.

As of last Sunday (9th May) there have been 1,848,747 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Ireland: 1,347,561 people have received their first dose and 501,186 people have received their second dose.

Meanwhile there was just one Covid-19 patient in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan as of 8pm last night, while there were five cases of the virus in hospital in Drogheda, two of them in critical care.

As of 8am today, 117 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised in Ireland, of which 34 are in ICU. There have been 20 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

A further nine deaths of people with Covid-19 have been reported this evening.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), also reported 379 more cases of Covid-19.

The total number of Covid-19 cases since the outbreak of the virus here last year now stands at 253,567.

The number of people who have died is now 4,929.

Of the cases notified today:

190 are men and 185 are women

77% are under 45 years of age

the median age is 29 years old

171 are in Dublin, 27 in Donegal, 28 in Kildare, 24 in Limerick, 22 in Cork and the remaining 107 cases are spread across 18 other counties.