LAST UPDATE | 11 Jun 2020

THE DAILY NUMBER of confirmed cases in Ireland was in single figures today, with 8 people diagnosed with Covid-19.

It brings the total number of confirmed cases here to 25,238 while a further eight deaths brought the overall death toll to 1,703.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) met to discuss the latest developments around Covid-19 in Ireland today, including guidance on face coverings.

In the Dáil, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that Ireland is on course to fully re-open by mid-July.

Elsewhere, the number of confirmed cases in the United States is now more than two million with the death toll now at 112,900 according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. 

Here are today’s Covid-19 main points: 

• Eight deaths from Covid-19 and eight new cases of the illness were confirmed in Ireland today.

• The Taoiseach said that Ireland is on course to fully re-open by mid-July.

• Leo Varadkar also told the Dáil that he will consider extending maternity leave by three months.
• A petition with 25,000 signatures is calling for maternity leave to be extended by three months due to the pandemic. 
• The number of close contacts of the average confirmed case of Covid-19 began to rise when the first restrictions began to lift in Ireland, according to the latest HSE figures. 
• The World Health Organisation’s Special Envoy on Covid-19 has told a Dáil committee it would be a “surprise” if Ireland needed to enter strict pandemic restrictions again. 
• The government is being warned that if it fails to clear backlogs in referrals and follow-ups for medical care that have arisen due to Covid-19, it could face a large number of future claims or investigations. 
• Even with the movement of staff in and out of prisons and some 700 new committals there have been no confirmed cases among inmates in Irish prisons.
• The world’s largest plane arrived in Shannon yesterday with Ireland’s biggest delivery of PPE yet. 

Here are today’s international Covid-19 main points: 

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the coronavirus is “accelerating” across Africa amid a shortage of test kits.
• Boris Johnson is considering changing the advice on social distancing from two metres to one, to allow schools, pubs, restaurants and others re-open fully. 
• The UK’s death toll from the virus rose by 151 to 41,279.
• An expert who had been advising the UK government said yesterday that if lockdown had been brought in a week earlier, it could’ve saved thousands of lives.
• The number of confirmed cases in the US has exceeded 2 million. 
• German airline Lufthansa says it is to cut 22,000 jobs as it reels from the effect from Covid-19. 
• Beaches in Miami have reopened, three months after closing due to Covid-19. 
• The death toll in Mexico has passed 15,000 as numbers continue to rise sharply in the country. 
• Music festival Coachella, which had been pushed back to October due to the pandemic, has been cancelled for this year.