219 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed in Ireland, two further deaths announced

Dave Hanratty

There are now 1,125 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland.

219 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the Republic of Ireland, the Department of Health has announced as of its latest update on Monday 23 March.

In addition, two further deaths associated with the virus have been confirmed by Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan; two male patients in the east of the country.

There are now 1,125 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland. Combined with the latest figures from Northern Ireland, there are now 1,273 cases on the island of Ireland.

The Health Service Executive of Ireland (HSE) is working to identify any contacts that the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread of the virus.

Data gathered by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre as of midnight on Saturday 21 March notes:

55% are male and 44% are female with 37 clusters involving 210 cases
The median age of confirmed cases is 44 years
239 cases (29%) have been hospitalised
Of those hospitalised, 25 cases have been admitted to ICU
208 cases (25%) are associated with healthcare workers
Dublin has the highest number of cases at 471 (56% of all cases) followed by Cork with 104 cases (12%)
Of those for whom transmission status is known; community transmission accounts for 45%, close contact accounts for 23%, travel abroad accounts for 31%

A nationally representative online survey of 1,270 adults conducted on Monday, which will be conducted twice weekly, reveals:

Over 93% of the population are washing their hands more often as a result of coronavirus concerns
88% of people say they are staying at home rather than going out
84% of people say they are practicing social distancing in queues
71% of people say they are sitting further apart from others
75% are confident they would know what steps to take if they developed symptoms and 90% know the two most common symptoms (fever and/or cough)

Over 60,000 people have responded to HSE’s recruitment drive in relation to tackling Covid-19 in Ireland.

On Monday morning, Minister for Health Simon Harris said that it was “very likely” that the government will receive advice on further coronavirus-related restrictions.

Speaking on RTÉ Morning Ireland, Harris stated:

“We won’t be making decision based on Twitter trends or political populism, we’ll follow the public health of advice. Tomorrow, Tony Holohan’s team will consider further recommendations to be made to government… Every time we’ve received recommendations from them we’ve implemented them in full.”

The Minister went on to stress the point that social distancing must be abided by, noting that it’s not something that’s just nice to do and that it is saving lives.

"To be very clear to everybody in Ireland today: you need to abide by the social distancing. That means there should be two metres between you and other people," Minister for Health @SimonHarrisTD tells RTÉ's @MorningIreland | https://t.co/MJHqr99J7E #coronavirus #covid19 pic.twitter.com/XhaWMPivrZ

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) March 23, 2020