*Social distancing ducks at the River Fergus. Photograph: John Mangan
70% of personnel diagnosed with COVID-19 to date have recovered with confirmation of a further 31 deaths, 376 cases in the Republic of Ireland and 3 in Clare.
To date, there have been a total of 20,353 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19, an additional 376 cases were confirmed by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre on Wednesday.
In Co Clare, an increase of three brings the latest figures to 232 as of Monday. A number of these people have since recovered while individuals that have been tested in recent days are also not included in the figure.
1,890 people have died since the outbreak of the virus. 31 more deaths were confirmed by health authorities in the last twenty four hours. A second person aged between 15 to 24 has died.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn said of the country’s first 19,000 cases, 64% had recovered in the community without being admitted to hospital, a further 6% had been discharged. 70% are now “assumed to have been recovered,” Glynn stated which “is in line with what we’re seeing internationally”.
Of the 356 admissions to ICU to date, 129 remain there, 173 have been discharged and 54 have died. The median age for those admitted is 60 while 83 of the individuals had underlying conditions.
Community residential facilities have recorded an increase of 7 extra clusters now standing at 369 while in nursing homes there are now 219 clusters which is up 1. Regarding confirmed cases there are 4363 in community residential facilities and 3457 in nursing homes. 363 and 228 persons respectively have been hospitalised from community residential facilities and nursing homes while there have been 697 and 593 deaths from either facility accounting for over half of Ireland’s deaths.
Following a census of mortality carried out between April 17th and 19th, it has emerged that from January to April, 3,242 deaths had been reported in nursing homes (586 of which were COVID-19 related), 53 is disability centres (16 of which were COVID-19 related) and 21 in mental health centres (14 of which were COVID-19 related).
Dr Kathleen MacLellan, Assistant Secretary Department of Health and Chair of NPHET Vulnerable People Subgroup confirmed that the current policy for individuals being admitted to nursing homes from hospitals is that they must have swabbed two negative tests before admission.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan outlined that he doesn’t anticipate current restrictions will be lifted following NPHET’s meeting on Friday.
Concern has also been expressed with the supports for Direct Provision Centres during the pandemic. Dr Holohan stated that the DP centres come under the remit of the Department of Justice.
