The number of people on hospital waiting lists could soon hit a record one million amid mounting concern about the impact of Covid-19 on delayed treatment and care for routine illness, it emerged yesterday.
The highest number of deaths, reaching 1,337, has been recorded in Dublin,
Sligo and Kerry have the lowest Covid-19 death rate followed by Galway and Leitrim. The national death rate was 69.7 per 100,000 at the end of last month.
It comes as 23 more deaths were reported yesterday with the new victims ranging in age from 57 to 95.
Most of the deaths so far, 1,144, occurred in hospital and another 1,088 people passed away in nursing home facilities. Just 69 people died from Covid-19 in their own home and 1,016 died in other facilities or in an unknown location.
Another 921 people were newly diagnosed with the virus as Prof Philip Nolan of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) said it will be around six weeks before cases drop to around 100 a day.
Midlands 103
Coronavirus: 556 New Cases And 68 Additional Deaths
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 68 additional deaths related to COVID-19.
50 of these deaths occurred in February,15 occurred in January and 2 in December .
The median age of those who died was 85 years and the age range was 43-96 years.
There has been a total of 3,752 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of midnight, Sunday 7th February, the HPSC has been notified of 556 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
In the midlands a total of 36 new COVID-19 cases have been identified, Offaly has the highest figures with 18 new cases of the virus.