Forty-four more people are confirmed to have died after being diagnosed with COVID-19 in the State.
There were 631 more confirmed cases reported today across the country, bringing the total number of cases in the Republic to 16,671.
In Galway, the latest breakdown of cases shows that there are now 309 confirmed cases in the county – as of midnight on Monday.
That’s an increase of 15 cases after yesterday’s figures did not report any increase on the day before.
Speaking this evening, Dr Máirín Ryan, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health Technology Assessment, HIQA said: “We have identified a range of diagnostic tests, both in development and already commercialised, that will need to be reviewed as part of a comprehensive quality assurance programme before being adopted as part of a national testing programme.
“The assessment has confirmed that Ireland’s current test, the real-time RT-PCR, remains the ‘gold standard’ test for detecting and confirming COVID-19 cases.
“HIQA continues to monitor and assess evidence on alternative diagnostic testing methods for COVID-19 and will report to NPHET on an ongoing basis.”
In addition to the 769 laboratory confirmed COVID-19 deaths, there are also 113 probable COVID-19 related deaths, according to the latest figures this evening. Of the laboratory confirmed deaths, 412 are associated with residents of residential care settings.
Of those, 348 are associated with nursing home settings.
Hospital statistics
| Total number of cases | 15871 | |
| Total number hospitalised | 2387 | |
| Total number admitted to ICU | 322 | |
| Total number of deaths | 757 | |
| Total number of healthcare workers | 4393 | |
| Number clusters notified | 507 | |
| Cases associated with clusters | 507 | |
| Median age | 48 |
Cases as of Monday, 20th April 2020
Today’s data from the HPSC, as of midnight, Monday 20th April (15,871 cases), reveals:
- 56% are female and 44% are male
- the median age of confirmed cases is 48 years
- 2,387 cases (15%) have been hospitalised
- of those hospitalised, 322 cases have been admitted to ICU
- 4,393 cases are associated with healthcare workers
- Dublin has the highest number of cases at 7,905 (50% of all cases) followed by Cork with 1,077 cases (7%). Galway has 1.9% of confirmed cases.
- of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 61%, close contact accounts for 35%, travel abroad accounts for 4%
*All statistics measured at midnight on Monday 20 April 2020.
