HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed a further 77 people who contracted Covid-19 have died in Ireland. 

The Department of Health confirmed this evening that there are 401 new cases of coronavirus in the country.

The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland now stands at 15,652 and there have been a total of 687 deaths. 

Of the 77 new deaths, some 67 were located in the east of the country, four in the west, four in the north-west, and two in the south. 

The median age of today’s reported deaths is 84.

There have been 307 admissions to date in intensive care, of which 152 are still receiving treatment. The number of people now discharged from ICU is at 109 (36%), and there have been 45 deaths in intensive care (15%). 

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the large number of deaths reported today does not mean the deaths occurred in the past 24 hours, but rather it is the number of notifications that the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) received. 

Holohan also warned against the public assuming measures will be largely relaxed in the coming weeks.

“We’ve been clear all along we need these measures to stay in place, we need to see further progress… we’ll make the evaluation on a continuing basis about the progress of the disease,” he said. 

“For now, the message absolutely is no complacency, there’s no room for taking our foot off the gas.”

He said the NPHET will make a recommendation towards the end of next week to Government, who will make a decision on whether to relax or extend current measures in place until 5 May. 

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Health Simon Harris earlier today also warned the public not to become complacent about the lockdown measures that have been implemented. 

Varadkar said that anecdotally, “there does seem to have been an increase in traffic and an increase in people out and about”.

With reporting from Conor McCrave