Ireland “on track” to have 200-400 cases a day by end of February

People are still being urged to stay at home and not to mix with others.

At Monday night's press briefing, Professor Philip Nolan said that Ireland remains on track to have 200-400 cases per day by the end of February, if people are to stay at home. Nolan said that if we are to act the way we have been over the past number of weeks, the numbers should decrease significantly. He also urged people not to be disheartened by the fact that progress appears to be "slower". "The most important message is if we continue to act as a society for the next three or four weeks, the way we have been acting for the last five weeks, then yes we're still on track." https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1358854671339823104?s=20 Nolan also said that we are now seeing the case numbers increase as a result of testing close contacts of confirmed cases again. As a result, there is now an increased proportion of younger people with Covid being detected through testing of close contacts. The number of asymptomatic cases has also risen again due to the testing of close contacts.

Up to last Friday (5 February), 230,766 doses of vaccine were administered. This accounts for 151,212 first doses and 79,554 second doses.

Monday saw six further Covid-related deaths confirmed in Ireland, as well as 829 new cases of Covid-19.