Nine more deaths related to COVID-19 have been confirmed, as well as 522 new cases of the virus.

This brings the total number of deaths in the Republic to 4,405 and the total number of cases to 222,169

The median age of the nine people who died was 82, while the age range was 69-94.

Of the 522 new cases, 280 occurred in Dublin, which is over half (53%) of these new cases. A further 28 occurred in Meath, 28 in Kildare, 26 in Cork and 19 in Donegal.

As of 8am on Friday, there were 426 patients with confirmed COVID-19 in hospital, 102 of whom were in ICU. There had been an additional 34 hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of March 2, a total of 460,637 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered - 316,056 first doses and 144,581 second doses.

Earlier, the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, admitted that it will be "very challenging" to meet this month's vaccination targets, but he was confident that vaccine supplies would improve during the second quarter.

More information on the latest figures in relation to COVID-19, including the number of people vaccinated so far, is available here.