A further 16 people with Covid-19 are reported to have died today, bringing to 1,561 the number of people in the state killed by the coronavirus.
The HPSC has also been informed of 51 new coronavirus infections today. There are now 24,251 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
There were an additional six new cases of Covid-19 confirmed in Galway today, falling back to a level similar to recent days after the figure spiked to 14 on Monday.
Galway now has 438 confirmed cases, accounting for 1.8% of the national total.
Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, said “The National Public Health Emergency Team will meet again this week. Given the decreasing positivity rate and that testing capacity has been expanded, we will be examining the case definition further.”
As of midnight Monday 18 May, 295,626 tests for the coronavirus have been carried out in Ireland.
Over the past week, 36,818 tests were carried out and of these 932 were positive, giving a positivity rate of 2.5%.
Paul Reid, Chief of the HSE has said that the executive is now in a position to carry out 100,000 tests a week. But concerns have been raised about the turnaround time for getting test results back.
Dr. Cillian De Gascun, Chair of the NPHET Expert Advisory Group, said “Despite broadening the case definition and increases in referrals the positivity rate has continued to decline.
“This indicates a consistent suppression of COVID-19 in the community,” Dr Gasun said.
This week has seen the first easing of Covid-19 public restrictions as Ireland moved into Phase 1 of the roadmap for lifting the national lockdown.
Today’s data on Ireland’s cases from the HPSC, as of midnight, Sunday 17 May (24,176 cases), reveals:
- 57% are female and 43% are male
- the median age of confirmed cases is 48 years
- 3,143 cases (13%) have been hospitalised
- of those hospitalised, 390 cases have been admitted to ICU
- 7,661 cases are associated with healthcare workers
- Dublin has the highest number of cases at 11,759 (49% of all cases) followed by Kildare with 1,379 cases (6%) and then Cork with 1,372 cases (5%)
- of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 60%, close contact accounts for 37%, travel abroad accounts for 3%
