Galway Bay fm newsroom – 467 applications for a primary medical certificate are waiting to be assessed in the Galway, Roscommon and Mayo area.

A primary medical cert is required to qualify for the disabled driver’s tax and VRT exemptions.

Figures provided by the HSE to Galway West TD Eamon O’Cuiv reveal 181 such applications were processed in full in the West last year.

Nationwide, 1,858 applications are waiting to be assessed with 1,273 completed in 2020.

In the response to Deputy O’Cuiv’s parliamentary question, the HSE says there are challenges in some areas in progressing assessments due to the redeployment of medical officers to the COVID vaccine programme and the management of outbreaks in residential care facilities.

It adds the HSE is currently revising its service recovery and restoration plans.

Deputy O’Cuiv says the delay is causing significant stress and worry to applicants with many in the West waiting for feedback since last March.

Galway Bay fm news – Kiltullagh native Saoirse Ruane – star of last year’s Toy Show – has gone viral online, again!

The 9 year old has learned to cycle her bicycle again using a specially modified bike – and has shared the achievement on social media.

Saoirse and her mum Rosanna spoke to FYI Galway:

Galway Bay fm news – The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 56 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

31 of these deaths occurred in February, 13 occurred in January, 3 in December or earlier, while a further 9 are under investigation.

The median age of those who died was 82 years and the age range was 16 – 97 years.

There has been a total of 4,237 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Tuesday 23rd February, the HPSC has been notified of 574 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 216,870* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. 

Of the cases notified today:

• 285 are men / 287 are women
• 67% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 34 years old
• 175 in Dublin, 57 in Limerick, 43 in Kildare, 37 in Galway, 35 in Meath and the remaining 227 cases are spread across 18 other counties. **

As of 8am today, 652 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 137 are in ICU. 35 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of February 21, 353,971 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

• 222,073 people have received their first dose
• 131,898 people have received their second dose

Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “We continue to see good progress, but this needs to be sustained. It is vital that we get our children back to school over the coming weeks. A key part of making this a success will be our continued collective buy-in to the public health measures that are tried and tested. Stay at home, work from home where possible.”

“Given the increased transmissibility of the virus now, we must continue to limit our social contacts and do all we can to starve this disease of opportunities to spread.”

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community including daily data on Ireland’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.

ENDS//

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 4 confirmed cases. The figure of 216,870 cases reflects this.

**County data should be considered provisional as the national Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting System (CIDR) is a dynamic system and case details are continually being validated and updated.

Today’s cases, 5-day moving average of new cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 23 February 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

~The 5-day moving average of the number of new cases provides an appropriate indicator of current daily case numbers within a county. It takes account of any validation of cases for previous days and smooths out daily/weekend fluctuations in case numbers.

• 7 day incidence is 108.4
• 5-day moving average is 700