Some 349 cases of Covid-19 have been detected among arrivals into the country who are being accommodated in hotel quarantine since the system was set up, it has been confirmed.
The system began in late March in a bid to keep variants of concern out of the State.
Since then, the Health Service Executive has carried out 12,410 tests on residents in mandatory hotel quarantine accommodation. Of these, 349 have tested positive for Covid, according to figures obtained by The Irish Times from the Department of Health.
The breakdown of detected cases by country of arrival is not available at this time, a spokeswoman said.
Arrivals from listed countries have to quarantine in designated hotels for up to 14 days. They are tested on arrival and again after 10 days.
Of all detected samples, 73 were suitable for whole-genome sequencing, which is the test used to determine the variant of concern, and four were determined to be the more transmissible Delta variant.
A total of 8,038 people have entered mandatory hotel quarantine accommodation since it commenced March 26th, with 786 currently in mandatory hotel quarantine as of last Friday evening.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said hotel occupancy varies week on week depending on demand. For the week ending last Friday there were on average 653 hotel rooms occupied.
Vaccinations
Meanwhile 4,707,181 Covid-19 vaccinations have been administrated to date in the State, with 2,673,840 having received a first dose as of Saturday and 2,033, 341 are fully vaccinated.
Close on three-quarters of the adult population have had at least one dose and 55 per cent are fully vaccinated.
The public should "take great assurance" in Ireland's vaccination rollout programme which was "now ranking highest in the world," HSE chief executive Paul Reid said on Sunday.
However, he said the more pessimistic modelling scenarios for the spread of Covid-19 following reopening of indoor dining “does present huge issues for us in terms of hospitalisation”.
He told RTÉ’s This Week programme “there are a few approaches” to testing and the HSE would ensure testing centres had longer opening hours. He also said the HSE could “potentially” also use antigen testing for testing close contacts of confirmed cases.
Over the weekend, 581 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 were reported on Saturday and a further 576 on Sunday.
The number of hospitalisations increased slightly from 52 on Saturday to 58 on Sunday, while the number of patients in ICU remained at 16.
In Northern Ireland, one further death linked to Covid 19 was reported on Sunday, while another 605 new cases were identified.
Vaccination centre
Meanwhile, a new community vaccination centre is opening at the National Show Centre in Swords, Dublin, on Monday. The centre is relocating from the Helix at DCU to allow for the return of university students in September. The HSE urged members of the public who had received their first dose at the Helix that they will now receive their second dose at the National Show Centre, and to pay careful attention to their appointment messages from the vaccination team.
Separately Stormont’s deputy First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, has suggested Covid-19 restrictions in the North may stretch into the autumn.
The Sinn Féin deputy leader warned “cases are increasing and will continue to increase” and that officials were carefully watching how that rise translates into hospitalisation and deaths in the region.
Dismissing the scale of the easing of coronavirus restrictions in England as “reckless”, Ms O’Neill said the North would “follow our own path”.
“We will have a better understanding of our own situation certainly by midsummer and towards the end of July and be able to predict perhaps a bit further into the autumn,” she said.
