246 of today's cases are in Dublin
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 4 additional deaths related to COVID-19.
There has been a total of 2,204 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of midnight Saturday 26th December, the HPSC has been notified of 744 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 86,129* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
Of the cases notified today:
- 388 are men / 354 are women
- 64% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 34 years old
- 246 in Dublin, 131 in Cork, 51 in Limerick, 40 in Wexford, 33 in Donegal and the remaining 243 cases are spread across 19 other counties.
As of 8am today 324 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 26 are in ICU. 50 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “We have seen a significant increase in the number of hospitalisations in the last two weeks from less than 190 to 324 today. This indicates a deteriorating disease trajectory nationally and is a significant reminder of the severity of this disease.”
“Due to the lower volume of tests being carried out over Christmas Day and yesterday, we believe there are higher levels of disease circulating in the community than today’s reported case numbers reflect. We expect, therefore, to see a large increase in cases reported over the coming days.”
