There have been three further deaths related to COVID-19 and 457 new cases confirmed this afternoon by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

The number of coronavirus-related deaths has now risen to 4,718, while the latest figures bring the total amount of cases here to 238,148.

Health officials did not provide a county-by-county breakdown of the figures again today.

As of 8am today, 242 people are now receiving treatment in hospital for the virus.

Of those patients, 58 are in ICU, down from 65 yesterday.

The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 of the population now stands at 160.

The five-day moving average is now 546, while the seven-day incidence is 520.

As of April 1st, 893,375 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland.

636,963 people have received their first dose, while a second dose has been given to 256,412 people.

Vaccine portal abuse 'frustrating' and 'annoying'

It comes as the CEO of the HSE Paul Reid has said the health service's COVID-19 vaccination portal has been strengthened to prevent people from abusing it.

It follows a number of cases where the vaccination portal has been abused by people falsely representing themselves as healthcare workers.

Paul Reid told Newstalk that immunisation programmes must be underpinned by trust in order to operate effectively.

"The whole programme of vaccinations in this country, and indeed in any country, is based on a high level of trust," he said.

"I have to say for the vast, vast majority of the close to one million doses that we will have completed by the end of this week, that trust remains very strong and the vast majority of the public are awaiting their turn for the vaccine.

"It is very frustrating, it's annoying and it breaches the basic tenet of what the programme is all about when incidents like that happen or other incidents that are high profile which we know have happened."

Main image: Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health. Photo: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie/