Ten cases of Covid-19 have been detected among arrivals into Ireland who are in hotel quarantine.
The figures were confirmed by the HSE on Thursday afternoon when it briefed the media on the coronavirus pandemic.
The briefing heard the cases were detected among 419 people in hotel quarantine.
The system of hotel quarantine began in late March in a bid to keep variants of concern out of the State.
Guests undergo testing on the first and 10th days of their 12-night quarantine.
The number of travellers facing mandatory hotel quarantine looks set to rise substantially in coming weeks.
Meanwhile the HSE said nobody over the age of 65 died in the State from Covid-19 in the last week for which figures are available.
In the seven days to April 6th, the 13th week of the year, there were no deaths notified in that cohort which has accounted for 92 per cent of all deaths in the State during the pandemic.
This compares to 581 deaths in the second week of January.
The number of over-65s who have died has been less than 20 in each of the last five weeks, but week 13 was the first where no deaths were recorded.
Vaccine effect
HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said there had been a “big collapse” in infections and deaths among those groups that have been vaccinated.
The number of over-75s who have been infected by Covid-19 peaked in week 2 at 2,237 cases and has fallen by 95 per cent to 102 in week 13.
There were just 14 cases of the virus in nursing homes last week, a rate of 0.08 per cent, the lowest since the pandemic began.
Dr Henry said Covid-19 numbers are starting to trend down again after a period of stagnation. The five-day average at 431 cases is down 18 per cent on last week.
The number of healthcare workers being infected as a percentage of the overall population has fallen from 15 per cent to 3 per cent after vaccination.
