THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has been informed that 43 people diagnosed with Covid-19 in Ireland have died. These deaths included:
· 34 deaths located in the east, 4 in the west, 5 in the south of the country
· the people included 22 males and 21 females
· the median age of today’s reported deaths is 84
· 27 people were reported as having underlying health conditions
There have now been 486* Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of 1pm Wednesday 15th April, the HPSC has been notified of the following cases;
· An additional 629 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by Irish laboratories
· An additional 95 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by a laboratory in Germany – a total of 724 new cases.
With the latest figures from Germany included, there are now a total of 13,271 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.
Today’s data from the HPSC, as of midnight, Tuesday 14th April (12,425 cases), reveals:
· 55% are female and 45% are male, with 425 clusters involving 2,451 cases
· the median age of confirmed cases is 48 years
· 2,026 cases (16%) have been hospitalised
· Of those hospitalised, 284 cases have been admitted to ICU
· 3,090 cases are associated with healthcare workers
· Dublin has the highest number of cases at 6,337 (51% of all cases) followed by Cork with 916 cases (7%)
· Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 51%, close contact accounts for 43%, travel abroad accounts for 6%
Professor Philip Nolan, chair of NPHET Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said; 'Our model today is showing four reproductive numbers, illustrating the different stages of the disease in Ireland over the past six weeks. We now estimate our R0 (reproduction number) to be between 0.7 and 1.0, which means current restrictions are successfully suppressing the disease.'
Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer, Department of Health, said: 'The data clearly shows that there are two very different experiences of Covid-19 in Ireland today. In the population at large, the virus is contained and effectively suppressed. However, the experience of the disease in long-term residential care settings continues to be a source of concern.
“In order to protect the vulnerable the first task was to suppress the virus in the population at large. We are increasingly confident that we are achieving this. All of our efforts now need to be on extinguishing Covid-19 in our community residential settings, including nursing homes.'
The Department of Health’s COVID-19 Information Dashboard (click here) provides the latest case information.
