Another 14 dead in Ireland as almost 3,500 contract coronavirus

Another 14 lives have been claimed by coronavirus in Ireland as the total number of cases in the country rose to 3,447.

The disease has not hit the Republic as badly as experts feared, but its Deputy Chief Medical Officer has warned there is no room for complacency. Today the official death toll rose to 85 while 212 new infections were confirmed.

Ten of the fatalities happened in the east of the country and four in the south. Among the dead were seven females and seven males, eight of whom were said to have had underlying health conditions. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn said it is too early to draw any firm conclusions as the latest figures show a slight decrease in cases of Covid-19.

He said: ‘Whether there is two or three hundred cases or more, we are always conscious that every case is a person. 212 is better than three hundred or four hundred and is better than where we thought we would be. However, we are only going to win this battle if we get the number right down and ultimately we have to stop each individual who has this, transmitting it to someone else.

‘There are a number of positive indicators that we as a country can take heart from it terms of the total number of cases today compared to what was predicted a few weeks ago and terms of what we know from the population survey and adherence to the new measures and people’s willingness to comply.

‘We are hopeful that as a whole we are going in the right direction.’

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Dr Glynn said the number of cases day on day has ‘decreased significantly’ compared to a few weeks ago but warned it is ‘too early to draw any firm conclusion.

He added: ‘I don’t think anything has changed the magnitude of this or the necessity of us as a population to treat this as seriously as we can.’

While infections appear to be spreading more slowly than anticipated, Ireland reported its biggest daily increase in deaths yesterday after 17 people lost their lives.

More than 700 people have been hospitalised with Covid-19 and around 113 of these are in intensive care. Around a quarter of the transmissions are among healthcare workers, health officials said.

He said Ireland’s health service is not carrying out as many tests for Covid-19 as it would have planned and that more cases would be picked up if it was.

But he even if that was the case he said that would not mean ‘the picture in terms of hospitalisations or intensive care would be any different’.

Dr Glynn said testing is due to be ramped up over the next 10 days to two weeks to get a clearer idea of how Covid-19 is impacting Ireland.

Last week the country imposed a full lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus.

All non-essential trips have been banned until April 12 with exceptions for grocery shopping, exercise and crucial family visits.

Pleading with the nation, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: ‘I’m appealing to every man, woman and child to make these sacrifices for the love of each other… Show that you care for your family and friends – stay home.’

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