Covid-19 latest: Irish death toll now exceeds 200; measures won’t be in place for any longer than they need to be, says CMO

More than 200 people with COVID-19 in Ireland have now died.

This evening, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) confirmed that an additional 36 people with COVID -19 have died, bringing the total number of deaths among people with COVID-19 in Ireland to 210.

This is the highest number of deaths reported in a single day.

Twenty-seven of the 36 deaths were in the east, six in the north, and three were in the south of the country.

Twenty-four of these individuals were reported as having underlying health conditions.

An additional 345 cases of COVID-19 were also reported, bringing the total number of cases here to 5,709.

This evening Chief Medical Officer, Tony Holohan stressed that the disease is still here and that the epidemic is growing day on day.

He said he did not believe we are at a point where we are ready as a society to step-back from the collective effort being made.

Asked when the current measures to reduce the spread of the virus may be reduced, he said that these “won’t be in place for any longer than they need to be”.

He said however that at this moment in time, they are not anticipating that they will be asking for measures to be lifted on April 12th, but said they would be better placed to advise on this later this week.

The Chief Medical Officer also detailed an analysis of 205 people admitted to intensive care units, which showed that 138 people are still in intensive care, 45 patients have been discharged and there have been 22 deaths.

The median age of people admitted to ICU was 61.

Some 159 of the 205 people admitted to ICU were reported as having an underlying condition.

A total of 119 clusters have now been reported around the country.

Dr Cillian de Gascun said figures now show that 42,484 tests have now been carried out here.

In the region of 2,000 samples are being tested daily, and Dr de Gascun said this figure will increase to 15,000 tests daily over the coming weeks.

The current backlog for people to have a test processed, who are not in one of the priority groups such as being a healthcare worker, is approximately seven to ten days.