A FURTHER 200 cases of the Covid-19 virus have been confirmed in Ireland and another ten people have died today, health officials have confirmed.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Ireland now stands at 2,615 . There have been 46 deaths in Ireland from this virus.

Eight of the patients who died today were male and two were female. Six of the deaths today were in the east of the country, three were in the northwest and one was in the south.

The median age of today’s deaths is 77. Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan expressed his condolences to the family and friends of all patients who have died as a result of Covid-19. 

“While we continue to build our capacity for intensive care, our strategy remains to prevent people from needing intensive care in the first place,” he said.

We know the virus will not survive if we prevent it from passing among ourselves. The enhanced restrictions announced on Friday aim to slow down and restrict the spread of the virus.

“We are asking everyone to embrace the new restrictions and follow public health advice to stay home and restrict your movements for the next two weeks. It is in all our hands to interrupt the spread of this virus.”

Today’s data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) reveals:

• 51% are male and 48% are female, with 103 clusters involving 379 cases;
• the median age of confirmed cases is 47 years;
• 564 cases (26%) have been hospitalised;
• of those hospitalised, 77 cases have been admitted to ICU;
• 506 cases are associated with healthcare workers;
• Dublin has the highest number of cases at 1,233 (56% of all cases) followed by Cork with 208 cases (9%);
• of those for whom transmission status is known, community transmission accounts for 51%, close contact accounts for 24%, travel abroad accounts for 25%.

Today Dr Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer, said he wanted to note that attendance at blood donation clinics is permitted at this time.

“I welcome the measures taken by the Irish Blood Transfusion Board to implement social distancing at their clinics and to maintain the blood supple,” he said.

“3,000 blood donations are needed every week to meet demand and the ready availability of this blood for transfusion is vital to the daily treatment of patients in our hospitals.”

In a briefing earlier today, HSE officials said they are predicting that the peak of the outbreak will occur in two weeks time, based on current modelling.

They called on members of the public to strictly adhere to the measures outlined by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

The HSE also revealed it is in the process of setting up a new isolation and step-down centre at Citywest Hotel and Conference centre, which will be operational this week.

There are currently 15,000 people waiting to be tested for Covid-19 at present, with around 10,000 people already scheduled for testing and the remaining 5,000 waiting for an appointment. 

The HSE is currently testing around 5,000 people per day at 46 centres across the country, and said it plans to increase the number of centres over the coming days.