HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed that a further 5 patients have died as a result of Covid-19 in Ireland.

The Department of Health also said that 46 new cases of the disease have been confirmed here.

The department said that 22 of these cases were confirmed after samples were taken on Monday and Tuesday this week.

It added that they would normally have been reported on Thursday and Friday, but are being reported today for technical reasons as part of normal practice at the National Virus Reference Laboratory.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan told the public that today’s increase in notifications did not represent an increase in the daily incidence of the virus.

“When the cases are analysed according to the date the samples were taken, it shows that they were spread out over a number of days,” he said.

“All the indicators of the disease are stable or reducing. We will continue to closely monitor these every day.”

A total of 1,705 people have now died from Covid-19 in Ireland and there has been a total of 25,295 cases here.

Data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre as of midnight on Thursday, when there were 25,249 confirmed cases, reveals that 57% of cases are in women and 43% are in men.

The median age of confirmed cases is 48 years.

A total of 3,276 cases involved hospitalisation, of which 416 required treatment in intensive care. Meanwhile, 8,123 cases are associated with healthcare workers.