Five deaths and 456 new confirmed cases in Ireland

HEALTH OFFICIALS have confirmed that another five people have died with Covid-19 in Ireland.

The number of people with coronavirus in Ireland who have sadly died now stands at 1,984.

The National Public Health Emergencies Team has also said that another 456 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases in Ireland to 68,356 *.

There are 274 patients with Covid-19 who have been hospitalized, of which 33 are in the ICU. There have been 10 hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.

According to the Covid Data hub, 11,106 Covid-19 tests have been performed in the last 24 hours and 75,951 in the last seven days. The positive rate in the last seven days has been 3.8%, lower than the total positive rate since the start of the pandemic of 4%.

‘Stay with us’

Assistant Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronan Glynn says NPHET is concerned that the positive trajectory they have been reporting in recent weeks has “stalled at best.”

Based on a number of indicators, including daily case numbers, he said it could be deteriorating.

Although there was no single cause for an increase in cases, Glynn listed a few examples of outbreaks and clusters in recent days.

These include workplaces (the construction sector and food processing sectors were mentioned) and funerals, as well as student gatherings (one in Limerick was specifically mentioned) and extended family gatherings.

Dr. Glynn asked people to focus on complying with the restrictions for the next 10 days to two weeks. When asked by TheJournal.ie on getting out of Level 5 in two weeks, Dr. Glynn said:

One of the biggest detriments to our progress is an open focus on where we could be in six weeks.

We don’t know where we’ll be in two weeks … What that dictates is what people do today, tomorrow and the day after.

“The last thing we want is for more people to get sick, the last we want is more people in the hospital, the last we want is more deaths,” said Dr. Glynn.

Glynn said the scenes of people drinking on the street in Dublin and Cork over the weekend were “frustrating” for many people, including the elderly and other vulnerable people who may have been in hiding for months.

“Stay with us … I know people are tired,” Dr. Glynn said. “I think that, generally speaking, people can be tired of listening to the messages.”

* Validation of the data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of three confirmed cases. This is reflected in the total of previous cases.

With reports from Hayley Halpin.