Coronavirus: 727 New Cases; No New Deaths Confirmed Today

National news updates on Monday 21st December.

Latest Figures:

There have been no new deaths reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre today.

There has been a total of 2,158 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Sunday 20th December, the HPSC has been notified of 727 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 80,267* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

359 are men / 366 are women

62% are under 45 years of age

The median age is 36 years old

311 in Dublin, 51 in Kilkenny, 48 in Wexford, 44 in Donegal, 44 in Cork and the remaining 229 cases are spread across 19 other counties.

As of 2pm today 241 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 29 are in ICU. 18 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; “Our current disease trends are gravely concerning. The situation has deteriorated rapidly in recent days. A total of 3,837 cases have been notified in the past 7 days. The five day rolling average has increased from 339 on 17th December to 616 on 21st December, an 82% increase. It is now as important as it was back in March to limit your contacts and protect your loved ones.”

Dr Lorraine Nolan, Chief Executive, Health Products Regulatory Authority, said: “Today we welcome a highly significant announcement from the European Medicines Agency in their recommendation to approve a first vaccine for COVID-19 in Europe. It is a key development in our continued efforts to tackling this pandemic. This will become one additional defence in our suite of public health actions to protect us from COVID-19.”

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said: “The virus is transmitting very rapidly, faster than we have seen at any point since March. The case numbers are growing at least 5-7% per day and, of particular concern, across all age groups.”

Dr. Cillian De Gascun, Medical Virologist and Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said; “To date, the novel SARS-CoV-2 UK variant has not been detected in Ireland. However, as we know the variant has been circulating in the UK since September, therefore we cannot exclude the possibility that the variant is already in Ireland. We are prioritising the sequencing of cases with confirmed or suspected links to the UK.”

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 2 confirmed case. The figure of 80,267 confirmed cases reflects this.

Vaccine authorisation:

A Covid-19 vaccine has been approved for use across the EU.

The European Medicines Agency says the Pfizer/BioNTech jab has met its standards for quality, safety and efficacy.

Ireland is set to get over 2 million doses of the vaccine, and the rollout here is due to start by next Tuesday at the latest.

Today's decision follows trials involving more than 40,000 people.

Emer Cooke, executive director of the EMA, says it's a major step in the right direction:

The EMA's Marco Cavaleri says the vaccine should still work against the new strain of coronavirus:

Northern Ireland:

No decision was made by the Northern Ireland executive last night on whether travel from Britain should be banned.

It's expected discussions between the parties will continue later today.

Meanwhile, it did agree to reduce the five-day Christmas relaxation to just one day - December the 25th.

A six week lockdown will come into force there on Stephen's Day.

Port testing:

There are renewed calls for mass testing at Irish ports.

Labour say there needs to be more medical and scientific advice on the strain of Covid-19 circulating in Britain.

TD Duncan Smith says the travel ban across the Irish Sea is the right decision - but believes testing is needed:

Sterling:

The pound has fallen by 0.7% against the euro.

One euro is now worth 91.36 pence.

Sterling's also extended its losses in Asia.

It comes amid increasing unease over a new Covid-19 strain that's caused many European countries to close their borders to the UK.

Vaccine:

The agency responsible for giving the green light to a vaccine rollout across the EU will meet to discuss authorisation today. 

The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen had previously said that vaccinations would start at the end of this month. 

The UK and the US have received some criticism for already using the Pfizer jab, which was pioneered in Germany. 

Rise in cases:

Covid-19 infections have surged to a six-week high after 764 more people tested positive yesterday. 

The infection rate in adults aged 18 to 44 has doubled in the last nine days. 

Four more patients have died. 

Professor Anthony Staines of DCU says Britain's new mutant strain shouldn't be dramatically harder to control.

But he says we're still failing to manage the version of the virus already circulating here:

British travel ban:

Flights from Britain have been banned until midnight tomorrow.

Only ferry crossings for freight will be allowed after a new strain of Covid-19 in England has shown to spread up to 70 times faster.

The EU member states will meet today to discuss its response to the variant.

Transport Minister Eamon Ryan says the Government can't rule out the possibility of that new mutated strain being here:

Hundreds of people planning to sail from Britain to Ireland on overnight ferries were told to turn back last night

The last passengers and private cars allowed cross arrived in Dublin before the midnight deadline. 

Stena Line is offering refunds to over 1,400 passengers who were booked to sail into Dublin and Rosslare today and tomorrow. 

Spokesperson for the liner is Simon Palmer, he says it can only carry haulage for now:

There was crowding at some London airports as Irish citizens scrambled to return home before the deadline. 

Zeena Muhssin says social distancing wasn't taking place on her plane into Dublin: