Westmeath cases now up to 181 as German lab results are added to national total

The addition of extra test results done by a German laboratory is believed to partially account for a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 patients in Ireland.

The county-by-county statistics - which run two days behind the daily release of national figures - show that by midnight on Thursday, there were 181 cases - 29 above the figure given for midnight Wednesday.

Saturday's statement from the National Public Health Emergency Team stated that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre was informed that 33 people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Ireland have died.

Of these, 30 were in the east, and three in the west of the country.

The gender breakdown showed 14 females and 19 males, and the median age of the 33 reported deaths was 82.

Of the 33, 25 people were reported as having underlying health conditions.

There have now been 320* COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland. (Validation of data at the HPSC this week resulted in the denotification of 1 death. The figure of 320 deaths reflects this. )

As of 1pm Saturday 11 April, the HPSC had been notified of the following cases:

an additional 553 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by Irish laboratories

an additional 286 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by a laboratory in Germany (which reflect cases from weeks ago).

The HPSC said that With the latest German figures included, there are now a total of 8,928 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said:

“Today’s figure of 553 represents the largest number of new cases reported in a single day since the start of the outbreak.

“This should remind everyone of the importance of hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette and physical distancing. These are the actions to suppress this infection. We need to continue with them.”

Cases as on Thursday 9 April

The data from the HPSC, as of midnight, Thursday 9 April (7,787 cases) and including German results received to that date reveals:

45% are male and 54% are female, with 356 clusters involving 1,626 cases

the median age of confirmed cases is 48 years

1,718 cases (22%) have been hospitalised

of those hospitalised, 253 cases have been admitted to ICU

2,141 cases are associated with healthcare workers

Dublin has the highest number of cases at 4,156 (53% of all cases) followed by Cork with 581 cases (8%)

of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 66%, close contact accounts for 26%, travel abroad accounts for 8%