*Photograph: Sean Curtin / True Media
19 new cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Co Clare with 566 nationally and 25 additional deaths.
Clare’s 14 day incidence rate per 100k of the population stands at 149.8 following notification of 19 new cases in the county.
Nationally, 566 additional cases are known with 233 in Dublin, 37 in Kildare, 30 in Meath, 25 in Donegal, 24 in Westmeath and the remaining 217 cases are spread across all other counties.
Outbreaks are being recorded in the community “including those linked to extended families, workplaces and funerals. We need to keep up our guard against the B117 variant of COVID-19, which we know is dominant in Ireland at present and highly transmissible,” Dr Ronan Glynn outlined.
“Our willingness to stick with the public health advice in our daily routine has brought us the progress that we can see today. Together, through staying at home as much as possible, social distancing, hand washing and wearing face coverings, we can continue to drive down the spread of COVID-19,” the Deputy Chief Medical Officer stated.
25 further deaths have been reported, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre has stated. 5 deaths occurred in March, 13 occurred in February and 6 in occurred January or earlier. There has been a total of 4,357** COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of 8am today, 489 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 114 are in ICU. 29 additional hospitalisations were recorded in the past 24 hours.
As of 28th February, 439,782 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland. 297,899 people have received their first dose and 141,883 people have received their second dose
