Coronavirus Ireland: 18 further deaths and 349 more Covid-19 cases

There have been 18 further deaths and 349 more Covid-19 cases, the Department of Health confirmed today.

Seventeen of these deaths occurred in March, and one in February.

The median age of those who died was 78 years and the age range was 55 – 102 years.

This brings the total number of coronavirus related deaths in the country to 4,552 and the total number of cases in the state to 227,663.

Of the cases notified today, 172 are men and 177 are women. The median age is 33 years old and 70pc are under 45 years of age.

There were 156 cases reported in Dublin, 23 in Meath, 19 in Donegal, 15 in Louth, 14 in Kildare and the remaining 122 cases are spread across all other counties.

As of 8am today, 355 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 88 are in ICU. There were 36 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of March 13, 615,934 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland. 451,589 people have received their first dose and 164,345 people have received their second dose.

This comes as the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine has been paused for use in Ireland due to the possible link between blood clots and the vaccine.

However, The European Union’s medicines regulator has said there is “no indication” that AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine is the cause of reported blood clots.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said the benefits of AstraZeneca's inoculation continue to outweigh the risks after several countries halted its use.

The EMA's Executive Director Emer Cooke said the agency was carrying out a case-by-case evaluation of incidents and was expected to complete a review on Thursday.

But the watchdog has received more reports of blood clotting events associated with the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Ms Cooke said she could not reveal the full extent of reports but the recent highlighting of cases in countries like Austria and Norway has led to more notifications.

Irish-born Ms Cooke said there is still no evidence that there is a causal link between the vaccine and the blood clotting events.

At a Nphet briefing yesterday, Chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) Professor Karina Butler said the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine will continue to be monitored.

“We will continue to monitor the situation relating to Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca and if we can be satisfied that these events are coincidental and not caused by this vaccine, we will reassess the situation and our recommendations,” she said.

“We are seeing this play out across Europe with many countries now experiencing pressure on their hospital and critical care capacities. We must not let this happen here.”

Dr Ray Walley, member of the National Covid-19 GP Liaison Committee said every medication has side effects, and is reassuring those who have received the vaccines of it’s effectiveness.

“Every medication, including every vaccine, has side effects,” he said.

“Our role as clinicians, is to weigh up the benefits and risks of medications. I want to reassure those who have received a Covid-19 vaccine in this country that there are, and continues to be, enormous benefits in the vaccine programme, based on evidence relating to all the vaccines we’re using in this country, including Covid-19 vaccine AstraZeneca.

“The temporary deferral of use of Covid-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca is necessary in order to give the assurance that we’re taking notice if there are any safety signals at all, any risks that may be identified during the considerable, ongoing monitoring of vaccination programmes internationally, and I hope people take comfort from this cautious approach.”

Online Editors