Another eight cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Galway today, out of 434 cases nationwide notified by health officials.
A further four deaths related to COVID-19 have also been notified by the HPSC today.
Galway’s 14-day incidence rate is now 84.5 cases per 100,000 people, with 218 cases reported in the past two weeks.
The median age among all the cases notified today is 31 years old, and 80% are in people under the age of 45.
As of 8am this morning there were 126 COVID-19 patients hospitalised in Ireland, of whom 34 are in the ICU. Another 15 people have been hospitalised in the past 24 hours.
There have now been a total of 251,904 confirmed cases of COVI-19 in Ireland, and 4,918 deaths related to the virus.
Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of four previously confirmed cases, which is reflected in the national total.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said “Next week we will see many more business open which means employees and customers will return to work and our economy will begin to restart in earnest.
“This is a very positive sign and a testament to the hard work of the vast majority in supressing incidence of disease in our communities.”
“It is extremely important that business owners, employees and customers take great care and review safety protocols and practices and ensure to consider all the actions we can all take as individuals to protect ourselves and our loved ones.”
Dr Holohan said that people should only return to the workplace in person if they absolutely have to, and that employers have a duty of care to the people that work for them.
“Reopening responsibly will help to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spreading amongst your staff in the workplace and ensure we all have the opportunity to enjoy the new social and economic activities available to us from May 10.”
Dr Ray Walley, General Practitioner said: “General practices are extremely busy at the moment dealing with COVID and non-COVID care as well as continuing to administer COVID-19 vaccines.”
As of Wednesday there have been 1,700,538 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered in Ireland, with 467,471 people fully vaccinated.
The COVID-19 data hub provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of the disease in the community.
