LAST UPDATE | 6 May 2020

HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed that a further 37 people have died from Covid-19 in Ireland.

A further 265 cases of Covid-19 have also been confirmed here, bringing the total number of cases to 22,248.

The overall death toll from the virus in Ireland is 1,375.

The HSE is looking into delays with test results, it was also confirmed.

Dr Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory at UCD said that a total of 214,761 people have been tested for Covid-19. Although he said that the turnaround for test results is between two and four days, TheJournal.ie is aware of a number of people who were tested but were left waiting at least a week for their results.

Meanwhile, alternative assessment models were discussed by various stakeholders at a meeting about the holding of Leaving Cert examinations.

Internationally, the death toll has surpassed 30,000 people in the UK. 

Here are today’s Covid-19 main points:

• A further 37 deaths and 265 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Ireland.

• Half of the patients admitted to ICU with Covid-19 have chronic heart disease, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan confirmed. 

• Holohan also expressed concern about the number of Covid-19 cases in the community, particularly among younger people.
• Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has said the Pandemic Unemployment Payment will continue beyond its original end date but that the level of the payment may change. 
• The broadening of testing criteria for Covid-19 has raised questions about whether Ireland could once again face a major backlog. The criteria provided to GPs has now been expanded so that people only need to have a new cough, fever or shortness of breath in order to be eligible for a test.
• Alternative assessment models were discussed by various stakeholders at a meeting about the holding of Leaving Cert examinations during the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost eight in 10 students want the exams to be cancelled, according to a new survey.
• Education Minister Joe McHugh has announced the early payment of the €16 million DEIS grant for the 2020/21 school year. The funding is being paid ahead of schedule to help support students who are most at risk of educational disadvantage during the Covid-19 school closures. There are 890 schools with more than 180,000 students in the DEIS programme.

• The State will cover the majority of the cost of childcare for healthcare workers, Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone has confirmed. 

• Bewley’s café on Grafton Street in Dublin city centre is set to close permanently with the loss of 110 jobs – the closure has been blamed on the impact of the pandemic.
• A number of gardaí were ordered to self-isolate after at least one of their colleagues tested positive for Covid-19 at Mountjoy Garda Station, leading to an entire unit being stood down for a short period of time, TheJournal.ie understands.
• Simple tasks are posing greater challenges to people who are deaf and hard of hearing during the Covid-19 crisis. 
• Hairdressers are being offered “three or four times” the normal price of a salon haircut by clients desperate to have their hair done during the current lockdown, according to industry representatives.
• Ireland’s 1,900 community pharmacies are struggling to cope with soaring costs and falling revenues, the Irish Pharmacy Union said, with an average fall of 36% across the sector.

Here are today’s international Covid-19 points:

• The European Commission has said the eurozone economy would contract by a staggering 7.7% this year.
• The death toll from Covid-19 in the UK has surpassed 30,000 people - the highest death toll in Europe, and the second highest globally behind the US.
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned against comparing the UK’s death toll internationally, and said the UK will have a testing capacity of 200,000 tests a day by the end of May.
• UK police have confirmed that Professor Neil Ferguson won’t be fined following his resignation from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies after allowing a woman to visit him during the lockdown.
• Germany is planning an almost complete return to normality this month, according to plans to send all pupils back to school and restart top-flight football.
• US President Donald Trump has said the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the United States harder than the 9/11 attacks, and backtracked on disbanding the country’s emergency taskforce.
• Fifteen children have been hospitalised in New York with a rare inflammatory disease possibly linked to coronavirus. 

With reporting by Órla Ryan