There were 349 new cases of Covid-19 and 18 further deaths reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on Tuesday.

It comes as the Taoiseach has urged people to mark St Patrick’s Day in a “Covid safe manner”.

Micheál Martin appealed to people not to meet up o n Wednesday .“It’s very important that people avoid social gathering or congregations of any sort,” he told reporters at Government Buildings.

Hospital Report

“The key issue is the avoidance of congregation, the avoidance of gathering.”

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He said that across the EU states were seeing evidence of an increase in infections, which he said was “without doubt evidence of the transmissibility of in particular the B117 variant”.

“Occasions like tomorrow can potentially create opportunities for the spread of the virus which we must resist . . . We’ve made a lot of sacrifices, the sacrifices have been effective, they’ve brought the numbers down, let’s keep at it,” Mr Martin said.

In a statement on Tuesday, Micheal Martin said St Patrick’s Day had an added poignancy as we reflect on a year dominated by the pandemic “ and the loss of more than 6,500 family, friends and neighbours across the island who have died with the virus”.

“We normally spend this day with our extended family and friends going to parades or to sporting events. Unfortunately, we cannot do this tomorrow.

He said the enormous effort to drive down the infection rate is working with the pressure reduced on the health service. “We are moving in the right direction, but we are at a crossroads,” he said.

He said the variant now dominant is more contagious and therefore more dangerous

“We must keep it under control and I am hopeful that everyone will make a special effort to mark the day in a Covid safe manner. It is very important that people do not congregate or meet up for social gatherings in their homes or anywhere else. To do so would be to undermine all of the sacrifices we have made to date.”

He said the opportunity to celebrate St Patrick’s Day will come again “ Our vaccination programme continues to be rolled out and as supply increases, we will get them to people quickly. But for the moment, we must continue to observe the current restrictions.

“Lá Fhéile Pádraig is the day when the world honours the Irish people. There can be no better way to honour our people in 2021 than to stay focused and avoid another wave of infection with this terrible virus.

Of the deaths reported on Tuesday , 17 occurred in March, and 1 in February. The median age of those who died was 78 years and the age range was betwen 55 and 102 years.

This brings the total Covid-19 related death in the State to 4,552 and the total cases to 227,663. Of the cases notified on Tuesday 70 per cent were under 45 years of age and the median age is 33. There were 156 in Dublin, 23 in Meath, 19 in Donegal, 15 in Louth, 14 in Kildare and the remaining 122 cases are spread across all other counties. The five day moving average of new daily cases is 499.

As of 8am on Tuesday, 355 patients are hospitalised with Covid-19 , of which 88 are in ICU. There have been 36 additional hospitalisations in the past day.

A further 9,030 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the State, witha total of 615,934 vaccine doses given up to Saturday, consisting of 451,581 first doses and 164,345 second doses.

These figures pre-date the pause in the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine across the State ón Sunday as a precautions following a small number of people developing blood clots after receiving doses in Norway.

Vaccines

On Tuesday the head of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said the situation that has arisen around the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine is "not unexpected" when vaccinating millions of people,.

A number of EU countries have followed Ireland in temporarily suspending the use of the vaccine. Speaking on Tuesday, EMA executive director Emer Cooke said “there is no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions”.

“They have not come up in the clinical trials and they are not listed as known side events with this vaccine.

“In clinical trials, both vaccinated people and people who received the placebo have shown some very small number of blood clot developments.

“The number of thromboembolic events overall in vaccinated people seems not to be higher than that seen in the general population.”

The EMA, which last week began an investigation into reports of blood clotting in people who had received the vaccine, met on Tuesday to review the evidence and is due to announce a decision on Thursday.