“This is one more step toward normal life that was snatched away almost two years ago,” Cabinet spokeswoman Mariana Vieira da Silva told a press conference. The number of officially reported new daily cases of Covid-19 has dropped to almost 16,500, compared with more than 50,000 last month. Daily deaths peaked at 303 in mid-January but fell to 42 on Wednesday. The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital stands at just over 2,000 while at the end of last month it was almost 7,000. The number of patients in ICUs peaked at 904 in January and is now 132.

Source: Irish Independent February 18, 2022 06:43 UTC