There have been 9 deaths related to COVID-19 reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team today, along with 7 new confirmed cases.
However, Dr. Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, said that eight of the deaths reported today are from April to June, and have been reported late.
The COVID-19 pandemic has now claimed a total of 1,763 lives in the Republic of Ireland, and there have been a total of 25,826 cases in the state.
In Galway, as of midnight on Tuesday, July 21 there have been a total of 492 confirmed cases across the city and county, no change from what was reported yesterday.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told the Dáil today that the virus’ R number, the average number of people that an infected individual will pass it along to, has fallen to between 1 and 1.4 now.
This is down from last week’s rate of between 1.2 and 1.8 when there was a spike in new cases being reported.
“Two weeks ago, we expressed our concerns about worrying trends in the progression of COVID-19 in Ireland,” Ronan Glynn said.
“Collectively, people in Ireland responded to this call for action and together have broken chains of transmission.
“This is a further demonstration of the power of people working together and rising to the continued challenge of this unprecedented pandemic. What we need now is to hold firm and keep up the good work.”
The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of the disease in the community.
Prof Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said the decrease in the R number is “welcome news”, but cautioned that the virus is still with us.
“This is a long game. As we head into the weekend and beyond, we must continue to remain vigilant in order to keep this progress up.”
