Galway Bay FM Newsroom – Hundreds of GPs and Practice Nurses in Galway have been given the first of their two Covid vaccine doses today at a clinic in Merlin Park Hospital.

Merlin Park, along with sites in Dublin and Portlaoise have been set up by the HSE and National Ambulance Service to administer the Moderna jab.

The storage freezers arrived at the centres in the early hours of this morning, and the first one was given to a patient at 10:30am.

It’s hoped that those GP teams, who are due their next vaccine in 28 days, will be able to administer the doses in the coming months.

Galway Bay FM Newsroom – The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 60 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

Of these, 59 deaths occurred in January 2021. 1 death occurred in December 2020.

The median age of those who died is 85 years, and the age range is 65 to 100 years. There was no newly reported death in healthcare workers. There was no newly reported death in a young person under the age of 30.

There has been a total of 2,595* COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Friday 15th January, the HPSC has been notified of 3,231 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 169,780 * confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. 

Of the cases notified today:

• 1,465 are men / 1,712 are women
• 54% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 42 years old
• 931 cases are in Dublin, 388 in Cork, 238 in Louth, 155 in Waterford, 151 in Limerick, and the remaining 1,368 cases are spread across all other counties.

As of 2pm today, 1,854 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised of which 191 are in ICU. 119 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “”This virus has taken root in every single part of the country. A significant percentage of the population – in excess of 1 in 10 in some counties – is currently either a case or a close contact. This is a huge burden of infection. When you consider that a significant percentage of our daily cases will directly lead to hospitalisation and mortality, the urgency with which we need to act becomes clear. By staying at home, you are protecting our health and social care services as they struggle against the enormous burden of infection that many weeks with thousands of daily cases of COVID-19 represents.”

“The improvements in cases is not happening fast enough. Too many people are still not complying as fully as we need with the advice. There are early indications that we may be levelling off in terms of improvement, but at far, far too high a level of infection. The UK variant is very likely  making our challenge more difficult. Please follow the public health advice. The safest place at the moment is at home. Please stay at home.”

Dr Cillian De Gascun, Medical Virologist and Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said: “Due to the nature of the mutation found in the UK variant of the virus, it is inevitable that it will become the dominant variant here in Ireland over time. The UK variant has adapted to us: simply put, it is better at moving from person to person when we come into contact. So what we must do is reduce its opportunities to spread by cutting out socialising. Stay home. Do not visit anyone else’s home. Do not attend illegal gatherings. Remember the simple and effective measures from springtime – wash your hands well and often, wear a mask, cough and sneeze into your elbow, keep 2 metres of space from others, and phone your GP at the very first sign of COVID-19 symptoms.”

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community. As of yesterday, the dashboard includes information on Total Vaccines Administered (1st Dose).

* Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 1 death. The figure of 2,595 deaths reflects this.

Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 7 confirmed cases. The figure of 169,780 confirmed cases reflects this.

Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days days (as of midnight 15 January 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

The 7 day incidence rate is 610.9

The 5 day moving average is 3,465

Galway bay FM Newsroom – A Galway TD is adding his voice to calls for the army to be used as part of the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.

The call from Independent Galway East TD Sean Canney comes as Galway this week recorded the country’s highest number of daily cases at 604

That occurred on Tuesday, while last evening Galway had the country’s fourth highest number of new cases but considerably less at 187.

In a further development the newly arrived Moderna vaccine is being administered in Galway from today to GPs, one of three locations in the country chosen to pilot this.

Deputy Canney says the army and the National Army Reserve should be mobilised to help deliver the vaccination programme as quickly as possible.

He argues the army is equipped with the necessary medical and logistical expertise to assist with the national effort.

He has described the National COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy as full of aspiration and says weekly reports that show the progress of the roll-out should also be delivered by Government.