HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed a further 25 people diagnosed with Covid-19 in Ireland have died and there are 480 new cases of the virus.

It brings the number of deaths from the coronavirus in Ireland to 288.

There are now 8,089 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland. This figure includes the 480 new confirmed cases and the 1,035 positives tests from the backlog of tests sent to Germany. 

Of those who lost their lives in the last 24 hours, 23 were located in the east, and two in the west of the country – 11 women and 13 men. The median age of today’s reported deaths is 75. 

16 people were reported as having underlying health conditions. 

Earlier today, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced that restrictions on public movement will remain in place until 5 May. 

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said we are at a “very delicate and critical point” in our response to Covid-19. 

“While measures to date have succeeded in reducing the spread of Covid-19 remains a risk to the people of Ireland.

We know how difficult the measures in place can be on individuals, on families, on friends so we don’t make these recommendations lightly, but necessary at this time. 

“We are once again asking you to stay home, stay apart, follow the guidelines and limit the spread of Covid-19.”

Data released by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has revealed that 45% are male and 54% are female, with 339 clusters involving 1,512 cases. 

Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry acknowledged that the rate of infection in the country’s nursing homes is much higher than in the community. 

“The HSE is working to support residential care facilities through advice on infection prevention and control, staff support and expert clinical advice,” Henry said.

Dr Holohan said the NPHET will be focusing further on nursing homes due to the high rate of infection, a pattern he says can be seen in every country in Europe.

“As our data shows us, there is still a quite a large number of nursing homes without any clusters at this point in time, that would be a continuing focus of us to try to prevent infection spreading into those nursing homes, and to mitigate the impact of the infection in the nursing homes that currently report,” Holohan said. 

As of midnight on 8 April, 1,949 cases are associated with healthcare workers, 1,631 cases have been hospitalised. 

Of those hospitalised 244 were admitted to ICU. Holohan said this evening that 62 people have been discharged from ICU to date. 

Related Reads

Repurposed drugs may be a 'cheap option' to treat Covid-19 patients until a vaccine is developed

Number of people infected by confirmed case of Covid-19 in Ireland down from four to around one

Holohan told reporters that he “doesn’t have a precise number” as to the number of people who are waiting to be tested, adding that the number of tests done is now in the range of 64,000. 

Sinn Féin health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly earlier called for the government to be more transparent about the current testing situation and to clarify why testing at two of the State’s largest testing facilities had grounded to a halt.

Addressing that issue this evening, Dr Colm Henry said some testing centres were closed this week because the demand wasn’t there. 

“You recall when the case definition was tightened up, it led to a rapid fall in the number of people referred for testing, because we decided to focus on priority groups.

“We’ve now got 49 centres, there’s actually too many of them at this point in time, we’ll need them further down the lane.

“The story yesterday about one test centre being closed was purely related to the demand, we’ve given appointments to anybody’s referred for testing.”

He added that the main issue with testing was in the labs “which is now thankfully reaching a resolution”. 

-With reporting from Céimin Burke at the Department of Health