Ireland’s Health Department yesterday announced that in the 24 hours to midnight on Monday, a further 36 people have died from Covid-19 in the Republic, bringing the total number of deaths to 210.
Officials also confirmed another 345 more cases of the virus meaning there are now a total of 5,709 confirmed cases in Ireland.
Statistics issued by the department show that 27 of the people who died from Covid-19 were from the east of the country, six from the north and three in the south. Of those who died, 19 were male and 17 were female while 24 of the patients who died had underlying health conditions.
The median age of those confirmed to have died was 81 while the median age of confirmed cases is 48, and 194 cases have been admitted to intensive care. Dublin has the highest number of confirmed cases of any county with 3,061, which is 55% of all cases, while Cork has 421 cases or 7% of total.
Community transmission accounts for 67%, close contact accounts for 22% and travel abroad accounts for 10% of the cases.
Officials also revealed that there have been 42,484 tests carried out across the country so far, with 12,271 of these carried out in the week to midnight on Monday, with 19% of those tested returning a positive test.
Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health Dr Tony Holohan said: “The increase is a result of a more sensitive case definition, testing people who are more likely to have the disease, including healthcare workers and those hospitalised.”
Meanwhile Professor Sam McConkey, the head of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, has called for tougher restrictions to beat what he called “this plague”.
Suggesting more restrictions for a week or two, Prof McConkey said: “We need to get unexplained community transmissions down almost to nothing before we relax and start doing everything that we’d like
to do again.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here