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19th May 2021

503 new cases of Covid-19 reported across Ireland

Clara Kelly

The daily number of people who have died with the virus has not been available since the HSE cyber attack on Friday.

As of midnight, Tuesday 18 May, the Department of Health has been notified of 503 confirmed cases of Covid-19 throughout Ireland.

Of the 503 confirmed cases, 101 are in hospitals.

Of the 101 hospitalisations, 38 patients are in intensive care units.

The Department of Health has said that daily case numbers may change due to future data validation.

The daily number of people who have died with the virus has not been available since the HSE cyber attack on Friday

Early on Friday, the HSE announced it had temporarily shut down its IT system after it was targeted in a “significant ransomware attack”.

Described as possibly the most significant cybercrime attack on the Irish state by Minister of State for eGovernment Ossian Smyth, it has caused major disruptions to health services across the country.

A further attempted cyber attack was carried out on the Department of Health after the ransomware attack on the Health Service Executive (HSE) earlier this week.

The Department has shut down its systems and is working to safely restore its data amid the attack and has been “working to respond” to the incident since Thursday.

A digital note from the cybercrime group, Wizard Spider who is believed to be responsible has been left on the Department’s IT systems.

The note is believed to be similar to the one discovered amid the HSE hack earlier this week.

The Department of Health confirmed that The National Cyber Security Centre, along with the Gardaí and the Defence Forces, is currently investigating the attacks.

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