The deputy Chief Medical Officer says there are no plans to move pregnant women up the vaccine queue after reports linking Covid to stillbirths.
Health officials yesterday said there have been four preliminary reports of this where the virus could have been a factor.
But Dr Ronan Glynn says the details around the stillbirths have not yet been confirmed.
He says officials will wait for more information before changing any health advice.
Hospitals
The number of Covid-19 patients in public hospitals has fallen to its lowest level since December 29th.
It dropped to 427 last night, compared to 1,239 on the same day last month.
There are 105 patients in intensive care with the virus, continuing a fall from a peak of 221 in January.
Three of these are in the unit at St Luke’s General for Carlow and Kilkenny, among eight with the virus there, while four are in critical care at University Hospital Waterford where there are 20 patients with the disease after two new admissions and one further suspected case.
Another 39 additional deaths were confirmed last evening with 462 new cases of Covid-19, five each in Carlow and Kilkenny.
Professor Philip Nolan, who chairs NPHET’s modelling group, says the country’s R number remains below 1.
Local Electoral Areas
Galway city centre’s 14-day incidence rate of Covid-19 is nearly four times the national average.
The local electoral area’s rate was 768 per 100,000 people on Monday, the highest in the country, but down 40% on last week.
Across Carlow and Kilkenny’s seven LEAs Bagenalstown had the highest figure at 198.3, followed by Carlow Town (185.4), Castlecomer (156.9), Piltown (112.4), Tullow (85.8) and Kilkenny City (76) with Callan Thomastown’s 43.3 the lowest.
Vaccination
New vaccines being approved will help with supply issues to the country, according to an immunologist.
The aim of 100,000 doses last week was missed by the HSE and it will miss its vaccine target for the second week in a row.
The shortfall is being put down to issues with the supply of the AstraZeneca doses.
Professor Kingston Mills from Trinity College says new vaccines getting approval will help tackle the problem.
It’s as Amnesty International’s calling for urgent action to speed up the vaccination of frontline health workers around the world.
Its research shows at least 17,000 health workers globally have died from Covid 19 over the last year.
It says there are more than 100 countries where not a single vaccine dose has been given to a health worker or patient.
Amnesty International spokesperson, Steve Coburn says it’s vital to protect frontline workers.
While there’s concern that anti-vaccination books are being sold on Amazon, with five of the top ten best sellers in the children’s vaccination category promoting misinformation.
Anti-vax books are also being sold by Waterstones and Foyles.
Here, just under 500,000 injections have been administered – however there are fears that people will not take one due to conspiracy theories.
Schools
Disability groups have expressed anger that children with special needs have been left behind in the return to mainstream schools.
They’ve met the Education Minister Norma Foley over the 20,000 children with additional needs who were de-prioritised in the first phase of reopening.
They won’t be going back to class until the 12th of April in mainstream schools.
Family Carers Ireland spokesperson, Catherine Cox says parents have seen their children losing ground.
While Education Minister Norma Foley is defending the phased reopening, but says it may not continue as planned.
