NPHET will meet later to discuss nursing home visits and if there can be a ‘vaccine bonus’ for residents in the coming weeks.
Any measures will likely form part of new recommendations to government ahead of the expected easing of restrictions in April.
It comes as a further 47 deaths were reported last evening with 631 new Covid-19 cases, eight in Carlow with seven in Kilkenny.
For the third day Kilkenny has the country’s lowest 14-day incidence rate, it’s at 54.4, a third of the national figure, while Carlow’s is 149.3.
Consultant in infectious diseases, Dr Eoghan De Barra, says having slightly different rules for those who’re vaccinated is a good idea.
While Professor Tomás Ryan, of the Trinity School of Biochemistry and Immunology, has been telling our Sue Nunn on The Way It Is that we should reward countries that keep their numbers low by allowing them to open up – listen back to that conversation here:
Hospitals
345 people with Covid-19 are currently being treated in public hospitals.
There are also 92 patients in intensive care with the disease, two at St Luke’s General for Carlow and Kilkenny, among seven with the virus there while two others are suspected cases.
Five are in critical care at University Hospital Waterford – there are now 18 patients with it there, after one new admission, and four others are showing symptoms.
12 of the country’s public hospitals currently have no available ICU beds, including St Luke’s.
PTSD
A study suggests one in five health and care workers had post-traumatic stress disorder after the pandemic stuck last year.
A survey of nearly 1,200 UK staff last summer also found nearly three in five were suffering from a mental health problem.
47% had clinically significant anxiety and the same percentage had depression.
In the US
Joe Biden says his 1.5 trillion Covid-19 relief bill gives the “backbone” of the US a “fighting chance”.
It’s passed in the House of Representatives, handing him one of his biggest victories since becoming president.
Part of the fund will give most Americans a one-off payment of just over one-thousand-pounds each – and increase the vaccination effort.
Mr Biden says there are reasons to be optimistic.
