90% of coronavirus deaths in Ireland aged over 65

Over 90 percent of the people who have died from COVID-19 in Ireland were those aged over 65, said the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Friday.

A total of 1,518 people had died from COVID-19 as of May 15 since the country reported its first COVID-19-related death on March 11, said the CSO, adding that an analysis of these death figures showed that almost 92 of them were elderly people aged over 65.

The death figures came from the Health Protection Surveillance Center (HPSC) of Ireland, said the CSO.

HPSC is an official organization responsible for collecting and releasing the COVID-19-related figures in Ireland.

The analysis of the HPSC figures revealed that people aged over 65 were the hardest hit group among all the age groups during the pandemic, said the CSO.

Almost 88 percent of the people who died from COVID-19 had underlying conditions, said the CSO, adding that the median age of these deaths was 83, the same as that for all deaths.

The CSO's analysis also showed that the highest amount of COVID-19-related deaths occurred during the week ending April 17 when 270 people lost their lives while the lowest amount of deaths took place during the week ending May 15 when only 65 people died.

Ireland reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on Feb. 29. As of Thursday, there were altogether 24,391 people who have contracted COVID-19 in Ireland and 1,583 of them have died of the disease, according to the Irish Department of Health.