A further 348 confirmed COVID cases have been announced this evening.

On Tuesday night, there were 41 coronavirus patients in Irish hospitals – up slightly on Monday, but down 28% on the same day last week.

Meanwhile, there were 13 in intensive care – 31.5% down on the 19 reported last week.

The HSE is still impacted by the recent cyberattack and the Department of Health said the daily case figure “may change due to future data review, validation and update.”

The five-day moving average has risen slightly to 321.

The Five-Day Moving Average. Image: Newstralk

Meanwhile, the Tánaiste has said younger people may be offered the AstraZeneca vaccine in the coming weeks.

The vaccine is currently only recommended for people aged 50 and over in Ireland.

Speaking today however, Leo Varadkar said talks were ongoing to change the recommendation as the country may soon find itself with “hundreds of thousands” of excess doses.

It comes amid increasing concern over the Delta variant, first identified in India, which now accounts for around 20% of cases reported in Ireland.

This afternoon, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) this afternoon warned that the variant will account for 90% of cases in the EU by the end of August.

It said full vaccination provides high protection against the variant and encouraged countries to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.