ANOTHER 128 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Donegal.
There are 3,498 new cases nationally, and 50 more people have died with the virus.
People aged from 45 to 96 years are among the additional deaths, which all occurred in the past two weeks.
As of 2pm today, 1,850 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised of which184 are in ICU. The have been 118 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Donegal has recorded a total of 2,588 new infections in the past two weeks.
Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said the shared effort of the public is driving numbers down: “We have worked exceptionally hard in recent weeks to reduce our close contacts. At the end of December, the number of close contacts per confirmed case peaked at approximately 6. That has now dropped to 2.3 contacts. This enormous effort is the reason we are seeing case numbers beginning to fall.”
“We know that it is extremely difficult to keep our close contacts to a minimum, particularly over an extended period of time. But this is the main way we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from COVID-19. Again today, we are reporting the highest number of people with COVID-19 to date in our hospitals. We must stay home to protect ourselves and each other.”
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health added: “New variants of COVID-19 have recently been identified in Brazil, and in travellers to Japan from Brazil. There is no evidence of these variants in Ireland.”
“Anyone who has travelled from Brazil in the last 14 days is advised to self-isolate for 14 days, from the date of arrival, and identify themselves, through a GP, for testing as soon as possible.”
“It is essential that anyone arriving from Brazil self-isolate for 14 days from the date of arrival before entering/re-entering the workplace. We are particularly appealing to employers to enable their employees to protect each other by staying at home for the full 14 days.”
“Further risk assessment of the new variants is expected from the ECDC in the coming week. We must all continue to adhere to every element of the public health advice. This remains our best defence against COVID-19.”