Covid-19 Friday: 25 more dead, 480 new cases

A further three weeks of Covid-19 restrictions have been announced up to Tuesday, May 5th.

The Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, made the announcement on Good Friday, shortly before Dr Tony Holohan, the chief medical officer, with the Department of Health, confirmed that 480 more Covid-19 cases have been diagnosed in Ireland.

The number of cases in Cork – up to midnight on Tuesday, April 7^th – is 472, but on April 10^th a total of 480 new cases were confirmed in the country.

Dr Holohan confirmed that 25 more people died on Good Friday bringing the total of number of people to have died from the coronavirus up to 287, and the total number of confirmed cases to 7,054.

Covid-19 restrictions, otherwise known as the ‘lockdown’, have been extended until May 5^th. The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Minister for Health, Simon Harris both said that the measures are being extended because ‘they are saving lives.’

The Gardaí Síochana's power to enforce COVID-19 restrictions will also be extended until May 5^th. Meanwhile, Joe McHugh, the minister for education, confirmed that the Leaving Certificate examinations will take place in July or August and that the Junior Cert exams will be replaced by class-based assessment.

The data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, as of midnight, April 7^th (6,444 cases), reveals: 45% are male and 53% are female, with 317 clusters involving 1,391 cases.

The median age of confirmed cases is 48 years; and of the 1,521 cases (24%) have been hospitalised; of those hospitalised, 230 cases have been admitted to ICU; and 1,765 cases are associated with healthcare workers.

Dublin has the highest number of cases at 3557 (55% of all cases) followed by Cork with 472 cases (7%).

Community transmission accounts for 67%, close contact accounts for 24%, travel abroad accounts for 9%.

A breakdown of the 263 COVID-19 deaths in Ireland shows that 187 cases (72%) occurred in a hospital environment; 30 cases (11%) were in Intensive Care Units; 214 cases had underlying health conditions; 161 were male and 102 were female.