Covid death of person under 25

Another person under the age of 25 has died with Covid-19 in the last week, bringing to eight the number of Covid deaths in Ireland in that age group since the start of the pandemic.

Health officials have confirmed there have been 19 Covid-related deaths in the week to last Tuesday, all with a date of death in that week. The average age of deaths in the past week was 64 years.

Meanwhile Meath had a total of 2,895 new cases of the virus in the two weeks to last Monday.

There were seven people in hospital with the virus in Navan and 28 in Drogheda last night with eight of those in Drogheda in ICU. The number of people currently hospitalised nationally with the virus stood at 443 this morning - down 27 since yesterday. Of those in hospital, there are 108 being treated in intensive care, which is up three since yesterday.

The figures come as the HSE says people aged 40 to 49 will be offered Covid-19 boosters from 27 December, three weeks ahead of schedule..

New vaccination centres will open in the coming weeks and the opening hours of current centres will be extended in a bid to ramp up the booster rollout programme.

The HSE is on track to have administered over 1.5 million booster vaccines or third doses by Christmas, with 8.8 million doses having been administered overall so far. As of this morning, the total number of boosters administered stood at 1.35 million.

People will receive an appointment for a booster vaccination from either the HSE or their GP, and should take the first one they are offered, HSE chief executive Paul Reid has said.

Five of the six local electoral areas in Meath have had an infection rate above the national average of 1,305 per 100,000 of population in the past two weeks.

Ratoath has the highest rate of infection at 1,788.8 per 100,000 and 596 new cases.

Kells was the only area below the national average with 371 new cases and an infection rate of 1145.1.

Ashbourne had 497 cases and a rate of 1,709, Laytown/Bettystown had 542 new cases and a rate if 1,588.5, Navan had 472 new cases and a rate of 1,351.2 while Trim had 417 cases and a rate of 1,336.8.