8 more deaths from Covid-19 in Republic of Ireland, 295 new cases

The Department of Health has announced 295 new cases of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland as of Monday evening.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has further been informed that eight more patients have died after being diagnosed with the virus. The median age of the deceased was 86, and six of the eight had underlying health conditions. There are now 2,910 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Republic of Ireland, in addition to 533 diagnoses in the north. In a briefing provided by the Department of Health tonight, further important details were confirmed relating to Ireland's coronavirus patients: ·        50% are male and 49% are female, with 111 clusters involving 428 cases ·        the median age of confirmed cases is 47 years ·        645 cases (26%) have been hospitalised ·        Of those hospitalised, 84 cases have been admitted to ICU ·        578 cases (23%) are associated with healthcare workers ·        Dublin has the highest number of cases at 1,393 (56% of all cases) followed by Cork with 217 cases (9%) ·        Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 50%, close contact accounts for 27%, travel abroad accounts for 23% An increase of 123 was announced in Northern Ireland earlier on Monday, taking the island-wide total to 3,443. While it will be 7-10 days before we will know the efficacy of Ireland's social distancing measures, the growth-rate of cases has begun to slow down. Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG), said; “We know what an unmitigated epidemic looks like, we are not on that track. "The model reveals that before restrictions were in place, daily growth rate of confirmed cases was at 33%. This has fallen in recent days to around 15%. But it is still growing and needs to fall further." Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; "We are beginning to see encouraging signs in our efforts to flatten the curve. However, we cannot become complacent as we are still seeing new cases and more ICU admissions every day."