THE REPUBLIC of Ireland has recorded no new Covid-19 deaths for the first time in 2021.
Yesterday, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) was informed of 821 new cases of the virus, but no deaths-- for the first time since 21 December, or 56 days asgo.
The easing of restrictions, travel from abroad and inter-generational mixing in the lead-up to Christmas led to Ireland experiencing the highest Covid-19 incidence rate in the world by early January.
An explosion in cases-- up to 9,000 a day-- tragically caused a large number of deaths each day, even as the cases began to drop.
The numbers of people hospitalised and in ICU with the disease are also beginning to drop, with 916 patients in hospital-- down from close to 1300 at the peak-- and 157 in ICU.
As for vaccinations, as of Friday 12 February, there have been 265,237 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Ireland: 175,238 people have received their first dose, and 89,999 people have received their second dose.
Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said:
"With the commencement of vaccination of people aged over 85 in the community, today marks a significant milestone as we seek to protect the most vulnerable from this pandemic. It is an extraordinary testament to science that less than one year since our first confirmed case in Ireland, we are now in the process of rolling out three effective vaccines.
"The challenge now is to continue to suppress this disease so that as many people as possible can benefit from these vaccines over the coming months."
There has now been a total of 210,402 Covid-19 cases in Ireland and 3,948 deaths.
