January has been a deadly month for Ireland, with Covid-19 deaths so far this year fast approaching 700. The Chief Executive of the HSE Paul Reid said that mortality has been "significantly higher" than any other time in the pandemic.
Today, a further 23 deaths were announced, bringing the total for January to 684 and the overall total up to 2,970. "Certainly, what we've seen over the last few days and over the last week are death levels, mortality levels, which have been been significantly higher than we would've seen on any day or any week through the first phase in particular.
So there's significant impacts in terms of mortality," he said. Mr Reid said the level of deaths this month "demonstrates the level of transmission that we are