HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed a further 31 people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died and there are 527 new cases in Ireland.

So far in this outbreak 365 patients diagnosed with the virus have died. There have been 10,647 confirmed cases in total.

As of this morning, the HSE was informed of a further 527 new cases reported by Irish labs while German labs testing the Irish backlog reported a further 465 cases.

A summary of all 365 deaths provided by the HPSC shows that:

• 215 (59%) of those who died were male, 150 (41%) were female
• The median age of those who died is 82
• 247 of these cases were admitted to hospital with 37 admitted to ICU

Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “Today marks a milestone in Ireland’s experience of COVID-19 as we see the number of confirmed cases exceed 10,000.

“The number of community cases of Covid-19 shows why we continue to need the public health measures that we currently have in place. I understand that the current restrictions are tough, especially during a bank holiday weekend when in normal circumstances most of us would have met up with family and friends but I ask that the public continue to work with us and follow the guidelines that are in place.

“The next three weeks will prove crucial to Ireland’s Covid-19 story and by working together we give ourselves the best chance to slow the spread and save lives.”

Earlier today HSE chief executive Paul Reid said the backlog of testing has been reduced from 35,000 to 11,000. He said on Saturday 7,900 lab tests were carried out in Ireland and turnaround times in hospitals are now between 24 and 36 hours.

However, he said there is more work to do on the turnaround time for community testing.

More than 72,000 tests for Covid-19 have now been completed.

Reid also said that Ireland has had a “significant” delivery of reagents from China, which is now undergoing quality assurance testing.