Covid-19: Hospital and ICU admissions declining as nine more deaths confirmed
There have been nine more Covid-19 related deaths, the National Public Health Emergency Team has announced.
This brings the death toll in the Republic to 1,639.
There have been 46 additional confirmed cases in Ireland bringing the total number of cases is now 24,841.
As of midnight on Tuesday, 3,267 people has been hospitalised with 404 of these admitted to ICU.
The number of cases associated with healthworkers stands at 7,920.
Where transmission status is known, close contact accounts for 58% of confirmed cases while community transmission is responsible for 40% and travel abroad accounts for 2%.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) met today to continue its review of Ireland’s ongoing response and preparedness to Covid-19.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, said that NPHET has mantained "a consistent focus on mortality" throughout the pandemic.
He said they are "very awae of the sad toll of lost loved ones on families".
“A mortality paper was prepared and discussed by NPHET today and identifies that mortality in Ireland has been within the lower range in overall terms compared with other health systems across Europe," said Dr Holohan.
“Ireland will continue to report both confirmed and probable deaths from Covid-19 in all settings and direct public health measures to limit the burden of mortality.”
According to Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, the reproduction number is currently estimated to be 0.5.
Prof Nolan said ICU and hospital admissions as well as the number of deaths per day continue to decline while the number of cases per day "remain stable".
"Next week we will see figures that reflect the impact of Phase 1 measures on key disease spread indictors.
"It is our hope that the R-number will remain below one and our progress is preserved."
Dr. Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said that it was agreed in principle by NPHET that the sudden loss of smell, known as anosmia, and the loss of taste (ageusia) will be included in the case definition.
This decision is subject to updated guidance from the ECDC, which is expected to be published tomorrow.
