Covid-19: 43 deaths and 359 new cases confirmed
Another 43 people with Covid-19 in the Republic have lost their lives.
1,232 have now died from the disease in this country since the outbreak began.
359 new cases have been identified in the past 24 hours with the total now standing at 20,612.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan has details on the cases inside community residential centres.
"We've now had reports of 371 clusters, that's an increase of two since yesterday and 219 of which are in nursing homes and that is the same number as yesterday, no additional nursing homes identified since yesterday," said Dr Holohan.
"The total number of cases we have had 4,590 cases identified in those community residential facilities. That is an increase of 227 cases since yesterday."
Dr Holohan said that the latest report of Covid-19 cases in healthcare workers has shown that 34% of them relate to nurses, 24% to healthcare assistants and 7% to doctors.
Since the pandemic began in Ireland 72 nurses, 40 healthcare assistants, 22 doctors and 45 other allied healthcare workers have been hospitalised with Covid-19.
Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said that the willingness of people to stay home and follow public health advice is instrumental in protecting healthcare workers.
"Healthcare workers place themselves at risk everyday during this pandemic. Supporting them and doing everything possible to protect them in their work is a priority not just for NPHET and the HSE, but society at large."
Addressing the issue of relaxing restrictions, Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of National Public Health Emergency Team, said that it is important to look at the pattern of the disease at the beginning of March.
"Within 10 days we went from 50 people in ICU to 140 people in ICU. Currently, there are 106 patients in ICU.
"If a similar surge occurred on top of our current ICU figure, we would find it very difficult to manage the treatment of patients. This reflects the sensitivity required in relaxing restrictions.”
