A person in Ireland under the age of 25 is fighting for their life after contracting Covid-19.
The patient, who is aged between 15 and 24, was admitted to an intensive care unit at some point on Monday.
They have become the sixth person in this age bracket to receive critical care after testing positive for the coronavirus.
This is according to the latest report from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
The report also states that a person between the ages of 25 and 34 was also admitted to an ICU on Monday - the 16th Irish patient in this age profile to have been fighting for their life with the virus.
However, it has not been revealed what the gender, exact ages or the location of the patients are.
It is also not known whether these people have underlying conditions or not.
The news comes after the Acting Chief Medical Officer revealed on Wednesday that 81% of the 50 new cases were in people aged under 45.
Dr Ronan Glynn said: “I know the decision yesterday not to move to Phase 4 will have been disappointing for many. However, NPHET’s priority must be to control the spread of this virus in our communities and to protect the progress that we have achieved to date.
"COVID-19 is an extremely contagious virus and we have seen a significant increase in its spread across multiple counties over recent days. We are monitoring this very closely.
"Our focus over the coming weeks will be on continuing every effort to slow the spread of the virus so that our schools can reopen, our healthcare services resume, and our nursing homes are protected
“I would also like to emphasise again the importance of continuing to practice safe behaviours such as physical distancing, washing our hands regularly, wearing a face covering where appropriate, avoiding crowds and downloading the COVID-19 Tracker app.
"Doing these things makes a real difference when it comes to controlling the spread of this virus."
So far, Covid-19 has claimed the life of one person in the 15-24 age bracket, while five people have aged between 25-34 have died after contracting the bug in the Republic of Ireland.
