There have been 93 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by the Department of Health today, but no further deaths associated with coronavirus.
There have now been a total of 28,453 COVID-19 cases in the Republic of Ireland, and the coronavirus pandemic has claimed 1,777 lives in the state.
None of the coronvirus cases which have been reported by NPHET today are in Galway.
Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 3 confirmed cases, which is reflected in the national tally.
“We continue to see a slow growth of COVID-19 in Ireland,” said Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, adding “The most effective action we can take to reduce the transmission rate of this virus is to reduce our number of close contacts.
“If we do this and keep practicing the other safe behaviours by continuing to physical distance, avoid crowds, wash our hands, cover our coughs and sneezes, wear a face mask where appropriate and download the COVID Tracker app, we have a real chance of slowing the spread of the virus to where we want it to be”.
Of the cases notified today:
- 52 are men and 41 are women
- 70% are under 45 years of age
- 73 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
- 12 cases have been identified as community transmission
- 34 are in Dublin, 7 in Kildare, 6 in Donegal, 6 in Laois, 5 in Limerick, 5 in Wexford and the remaining 30 cases are in Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Louth, Meath. Monaghan, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow
The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of the disease in the community.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said that Ireland was at a “tipping point” when speaking to an Oireachtas Committee yesterday, and that the country is close to having to go into lockdown again.
The R number for the virus is now between 1 and 1.2, which Prof Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said is an improvement on what we have seen recently, but not where we want it to be.
“We are still seeing growing transmission of the disease and we need to bring the R-number back below 1 if we are to effectively slow the spread of COVID-19 and suppress its transmission.”
Dr John Cuddihy, Director of the HPSC, said that outbreaks have been identified in diverse settings including private homes, workplace, and social gatherings.
“Congregated settings are ideal environments for this disease to spread between people. We all must avoid such congregations if we are going to break the chains of transmission of the virus.”
