A further 48 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported, as well as 1,254 new cases of the virus.

This brings the total number of deaths here to 3,214 and the total number of cases to 193,892.

Among the 48 deaths, the median age of those who died was 82 years and the age range was 30-99 years.

Of the 1,254 cases, 437 occurred in Dublin, 146 in Cork, 76 in Meath, 69 in Wexford and 62 in Kildare.

As of 2pm on Friday, there were, 1,518 people with confirmed COVID-19 in hospital, of which 211 were in ICU. There had been an additional 51 hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended the approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in the EU in all adults over the age of 18.

The EMA said that it had "thoroughly assessed the data on the quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine and recommended by consensus a formal conditional marketing authorisation be granted by the European Commission".

According to EMA executive director, Emer Cooke, the EMA's human medicines committee "has rigorously evaluated this vaccine, and the scientific basis of our work underpins our firm commitment to safeguard the health of EU citizens".

The committee looked at the combined results from four clinical trials in the UK, Brazil and South Africa, involving around 24,000 people, which showed that the vaccine was safe and effective.

Earlier in the week, some reports from Germany suggested that the vaccine may not be effective in people over the age of 65.

The EMA acknowledged that most of the participants in these studies were aged between 18 and 55 and as a result, there are not enough results yet in older participants to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group.

"However, protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines.

"As there is reliable information on safety in this population, the EMA's scientific experts considered that the vaccine can be used in older adults. More information is expected from ongoing studies, which include a higher proportion of elderly participants," the EMA said.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is given as two injections in the arm. Doses are given four to 12 weeks apart.

The Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, described the approval as "good news". Commenting on Twitter, he said that this means "we now have another vaccine in the arsenal" and those over the age of 85 can look forward to being vaccinated in the "next few weeks".

The Government is planning to use this vaccine to vaccinate the over-70s. However problems with supply are expected in the short-term, due to an ongoing row between AstraZeneca and the EU, after the pharmaceutical company said that EU members would only get some of their expected supplies in the first quarter.