There have been four further deaths related to COVID-19 and 420 new cases confirmed this evening by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

The number of coronavirus-related deaths has now risen to 4,835, while the latest figures bring the total amount of cases here to 243,238.

Of the latest cases, 75% are under 45 years of age, while the median age is 32 years old.

As of 8am today, 183 people are now receiving treatment in hospital for the virus after seven new admissions in the past 24 hours.

Of those patients, 50 are in ICU, down from 53 yesterday.

The number of people with coronavirus in hospital is now at its lowest point in more than six months.

The five-day moving average is now 386.

Vaccines

As of April 15th, 1,155,599 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

814,470 people have received their first dose, while a second dose has been given to 341,129 people.

It comes as the CEO of the HSE said that he is not aware of any plans to change the vaccine priority list.

However, Paul Reid added that the health service is ready to make adjustments from the aged based system if asked to do so by Government.

It follows the news that the Minister for Health Minister has said people aged under 30 could be vaccinated against COVID-19 earlier to reduce transmission of the virus.

Stephen Donnelly is proposing that people aged 18 to 30 would get their inoculations before those aged 30 to 50, once people in their 60s are vaccinated.

He told The Irish Times that he has asked the Department of Health to examine the possibility of revising the order of age cohorts.

Main image: Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health. Photo: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie