Nine new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed by the Department of Health on the day the virus claimed its first life in Ireland.
None of the new confirmed cases came from community transmission.
Six males from the south and east of the country are associated with travel while two males and a female are associated with contact with a confirmed case.
It takes the total number of cases in the Republic of Ireland to 43 and 61 on the island of Ireland.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer with the Department of Health also confirmed the death of an elderly woman in the east of the country from coronavirus.
The woman had an underlying health condition.
Holohan said Ireland is in a containment phase and steps would be taken to enhance and increase this phase.
Earlier on Wednesday, the World Health Organisation officially declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic.
“Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation said.
“Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this virus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do.
“We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.”
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