There have been 23 new cases of COVID-19 recorded in Galway in the latest figures released today, bringing the total in the county to 220.
The National Public Health Emergency Team confirmed today that there have been 832 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the Republic of Ireland as of Tuesday, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 11,479.
There were 41 new deaths from COVID-19, the highest number recorded in a single day so far, bringing the total number of deaths in the Republic to 406.
Of those deaths, 36 were in the east of the country, four were in the west, and one was in the south.
The people who died included 16 women and 25 men, and 31 of them had underlying medical conditions. The median age of today’s reported deaths was 85.
The NPHET met on Tuesday to discuss the number of clusters in nursing homes around the country, and putting in place a plan to better track them there, and in other residential settings.
Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, said “We remain concerned about the prevalence of COVID-19 in nursing homes and residential care settings.”
“The National Public Health Emergency Team is monitoring developments in these facilities and continues to advance supports and actions where needed.”
“From the beginning, we have been aware that vulnerable groups, including the elderly, are at greater risk from this virus. These groups will continue to be our priority.”
Of the new cases confirmed today, 548 were reported by Irish laboratories, and 284 were confirmed by a lab in Germany.
So far 90,646 tests for Covid-19 have been carried out as of midnight on Monday, 62,952 of which were sent to Irish laboratories, and 27,694 of which were completed in a laboratory in Germany.
Over the past week, 20,468 tests were carried out in Irish laboratories and of these 4,233 were positive.
Dr. Cillian De Gascun, Chair of NPHET’s Expert Advisory Group said; “Having come through a challenging few weeks, we have significantly strengthened testing capacity and will continue to do so over the coming week, to put us in a very strong position to identify and suppress the virus.”
Dr. Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer with the HSE, said “We are not seeing a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in our hospitals or our ICU’s over the last number of days.
He added that this is “down to the efforts of every individual who has followed advice to stay apart and slow the spread of the virus. To everyone playing their part, the health service is grateful.”
