Galway Bay fm newsroom – There have been no new deaths reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre today.

There has been a total of 4,422 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Sunday 7th March, the HPSC has been notified of 437 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 223,651* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

• 216 are men / 218 are women
• 71% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 34 years old
• 184 in Dublin, 31 in Limerick, 26 in Donegal, 20 in Galway, 18 in Offaly and the remaining 158 cases are spread across all other counties**.

As of 8am today, 418 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 103 are in ICU. 20 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of March 5^th, 513,322 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

• 363,601 people have received their first dose
• 149,721 people have received their second dose

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.

Dr. Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said; “Our Amárach research data shows compliance with the key public health measures remain very high; washing hands regularly (93%), using hand sanitiser (95%), social distancing while in a queue (93%).

“While levels of anxiety (36%) and boredom (38%) are understandably high, it is encouraging to see that a sense of hope continues to rise across the population with 48% of people reporting that they feel the worst of the pandemic is behind us.

“This hope is justified in the context of the continued improvement in the key indicators of the disease and with the ongoing rollout of the vaccination programme over the coming weeks. However, it is vital that this hope does not give way to complacency; across Europe countries are seeing a deteriorating picture and our own disease incidence remains high – we must do all we can to continue to suppress this virus and to ensure that as many people as possible get to benefit from vaccination over the coming months. Keep your guard up and hold firm.”

Dr. Cliona Murphy, Chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said; “We recommend that everyone of reproductive age should take the COVID-19 vaccine as it becomes available. We are aware of misinformation about risks associated with taking COVID-19 vaccines and an impact on fertility. There is no evidence that taking any of the COVID-19 vaccines affects a woman’s future ability to conceive, or to continue a pregnancy.”

ENDS//

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 5 confirmed cases. The figure of 223,651 confirmed 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 07 March 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 71.2
• 5-day moving average 495

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The issue of rising domestic violence rates has been raised in the Seanad today – with city-based Senator Pauline O’ Reilly wanting to know what measures are being taken to address the national epidemic.

She cited recent figures released by Galway Gardai, which show rising rates of domestic disputes and breaches of barring or safety orders over the past year.

Senator O’Reilly said while men can be victims and should not be forgotten, it is women and children who are most affected – and many are living in fear of their lives.

Addressing Minister Roderic O’ Gorman, Green Party Senator O’ Reilly wanted to know what the Government is doing to tackle the situation…

Galway Bay fm newsroom – Public health dental screenings for primary school children across Galway dropped by 87% in 2020.

Figures released by the HSE to Sinn Fein Dublin Mid-West TD Mark Ward, show just 531 screenings were carried in the city and county last year – that’s down from 4,317 in 2019.

Nationwide dental screenings dropped by 63% on average, while the CHO2 area which covers counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon was one of the worst effected with an average drop of 76%.

Roscommon/Galway TD Claire Kerrane is calling on the HSE to develop contingency plans to provide dental screening for children in primary school.

She argues that prior to COVID-19 the Irish Dental Association stated an increasing number of children were only being offered examination and dental care for the first time at sixth class and this situation has been exasperated by the impact of the pandemic.

The HSE has confirmed that many dental staff have been redeployed to testing and tracing as part of the COVID-19 response but that elective dental services have been gradually resuming.

Deputy Kerrane says the HSE could have hired applicants from the “Be on Call for Ireland” campaign as contact tracers instead….