SEVEN new cases of coronavirus were notified in Kerry today and the five-day moving average for the county is six.
There have been 54 new infections confirmed here in the past 14 days but Kerry still has the lowest incidence rate in the country with 36.6 cases per 100,000 population.
Nationally today, 35 more deaths were confirmed and another 613 people were diagnosed with the virus.
21 of the deaths occurred in February, 12 in January and one in November with the date of one other case still under investigation.
The median age of those who died was 85 years and the age range was from 53 to 102 years.
A total of 4,271 people have now lost their lives due to the coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland with 217,478 known to have been infected.
Early this Wednesday morning, 652 patients were in hospital due to complications caused by the virus with 137 in intensive care. There were 35 additional hospitalisations related to the disease in the past 24 hours.
Of the cases notified today, 308 are male and 304 are female with 66 per cent under 45 years of age. The median age of those affected is 34.
224 of the newly diagnosed case are in Dublin, 39 in Limerick, 37 in Meath, 34 in Westmeath and 33 in Offaly with the remaining 246 cases spread across all other counties.
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said continued and significant progress is being made, albeit more slowly and the all-important reproduction number remains between 0.6 and 0.9.
“That is a real achievement given the higher transmissibility of the B.1.1.7 variant, which accounts for 90 per cent of cases. Our collective efforts to suppress transmission of the virus and bring the disease to manageable levels are having a positive impact,” he said
“If we continue to work together, we can keep each other safe as the vaccination programme offers wider protection,” Professor Nolan stated.
Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Medical Officer with the Department of Health, said many of the key indicators of disease levels in communities are continuing to fall and this is allowing schools to reopen on a phased basis.
“We must remember that Covid-19 is still circulating at a high level and we are still seeing positivity rates of around 15 per cent in the community,” Dr Glynn stated.
“As we see more of our children return to school next week, it is important that we continue to follow all of the public health guidance, including on the school run,” he added.
