Pictured is Jessica with her mum Tracie

Simonstown vaccinates its 100,000th person

Eight people with the virus are in hospital in Navan and 30 in Drogheda

This week Jessica Devoy became the 100,000th person to receive a vaccine at Simonstown Community Vaccination Centre in Navan. The HSE congratulates Jessica the team in Simonstown.

Meanwhile, the team in Fairyhouse reached their 40,000 vaccination mark.

The milestones came the week after Meath reported one of the highest incidence rates of Covid-19 in the country, and set up a number of one day appointment only pop-up Covid-19 testing in Navan in the NEDOC building on Academy Street.

The Laytown/Bettystown area had the second highest 14 day incidence rate of Covid-19 in the country last week with 2,198 cases per 100,000 of population in the two weeks up to Monday of last week.

The Meath coastal area was second only to neighbouring Drogheda Urban which reported a rate of 22,346 per 100,000 over the same period. The national average was 1.268.

Last night, there were eight people with the virus in hospital in Navan and 30 in Drogheda with one in ICU in Navan and nine in Drogheda.

Health officials confirmed 4,607 additional cases of Covid-19 yesterday with 579 Covid-19 patients in hospital and 115 of those patients in intensive care.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) released the weekly figures for deaths last Wednesday confirming that there had been 43 deaths notified to them in the previous week, bringing Ireland’s total death toll from Covid-19 to 5,652.

Meanwhile, Meath has the ninth highest rate in the country last week at 1,357 per 100,000.

There were very high rates across the county with Ashbourne at 1,684.9, Ratoath at 1,572.7, Kells 1,549.5, Trim 1,317.5 and Navan 1,170.9,

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) met with Government leaders yesterday in the wake of the new coronavirus variant Omicron being identified in more countries around the world.

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said a number of suspected cases of the Omicron Covid-19 variant have been identified in Ireland and that “it is likely” that the new Covid strain is in the country.

He said that public health officials were concerned about the new variant and are focusing strongly and urgently on the matter.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the high incidence of disease from Covid-19 continues to have a significant impact on the health service.

“We are still seeing a concerning number of people who are in hospital and require critical care for Covid-19. This wave of infection is driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19.

“We know that the news of the Omicron variant is causing some concern. However, we also know how to break the chains of transmission of Covid-19 – these measures have worked against previous variants of Covid-19, they can successfully suppress transmission of the Delta variant and we are optimistic that they will work against the Omicron variant.”

Dr Holohan asked that people be mindful of their contacts and if you plan to socialise to remember to wear a mask correctly, meet outside if possible, avoid poorly ventilated indoor spaces, and practice good hand and respiratory hygiene.

“It is vital that if you experience and symptoms of Covid-19 that you isolate immediately and arrange a PCR test – not an antigen test,” he said.