Four deaths from Covid were announced on Saturday in addition to 1,606 new cases.

The deaths bring to 852 the total since the start of the pandemic.

They relate to two men, aged 83 and 84 and two women, aged 73 and 90.

A total of 152 Covid patients are being treated in hospital, of which 32 are in a serious condition, 12 intubated.

Of all patients in hospital 60.93 per cent have no history of vaccination.

The new cases were from 98,933 tests, giving a positivity rate of 1.62 per cent.

Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 318,773 cases have been reported.

Of Saturday’s tests 6,263 were PCR, from which 231 new cases were found.

This means 92,670 rapid tests were carried out, among which 1,375 positives were found.

Among contacts of known cases 45 PCR tests found three new cases and 1,045 rapid tests uncovered a further 59.

People taking tests on their own initiative found 165 cases among 1,729 PCR tests and 859 among 54,559 rapid tests.

Through the ministry of health’s rapid testing programme 38,111 tests were carried out which uncovered 516 new cases.