Daily covid numbers report nine additional deaths

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of nine additional deaths related to COVID-19 and 525 confirmed new cases of the virus.

Seven of the deaths occurred in March and two in February.

The median age of those who died was 76 years and the age range was 64 – 95 years.

There has been a total of 4,585 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland to date.

The figures are up to date as of midnight, Friday, March 19.

Five cases were confirmed in County Cavan and less than five in County Monaghan. The rolling three-day average of new cases in the Breffni county is now running at eight cases per day; and two in County Monaghan.

There have been 71 confirmed new cases of the virus in County Cavan in the 14-day period up to midnight on Friday, March 19. The corresponding fortnightly tally for Monaghan is 45 cases.

Both counties are well below the incident rate nationwide.

There have now been a total of 229,831 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

- 255 are men / 265 are women

- 68% are under 45 years of age

- The median age is 34 years old

More than half of today's cases, 266, are in Dublin, 33 in Meath, 29 in Wexford, 25 in Offaly, 24 in Donegal, and the remaining 148 cases are spread across 19 other counties.

As of 8am today, 328 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, 83 of which are in ICU. There have been 27 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of March 17, 639,586 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

- 468,328 people have received their first dose

- 171,258 people have received their second dose