Coronavirus claims 25 more lives in Ireland and 343 more cases reported

A further 25 people diagnosed with Covid-19 have died, the National Public Health Emergency Team disclosed on Saturday.

There have now been a total of 1,286 deaths associated with the disease in Ireland, it said.

Another 343 new confirmed cases were also reported. This brings the total number of cases to 21,176. This is the fifth day in a row that the increase in the number of new cases has been 2 per cent or lower.

Four deaths previously thought to be Covid-19 related were denotified and have been reflected in the death toll figure of 1,286.

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The department released a more detailed breakdown of information from the State’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre on 20,742 cases as of midnight last Thursday.

Of those cases, 2,785 people, or 13 per cent, have been hospitalised and, of those, 368 cases have been admitted to hospital intensive care units, an increase of one on the previous day.

There were 5,973 cases associated with healthcare workers, up 133 on Wednesday’s figure.

The gender breakdown of the 20,742 cases was 58 per cent female and 42 per cent male. The average age of these cases was 49 years.

Dublin had the highest number of cases at 10,277, or 50 per cent of all cases, followed by Kildare with 1,226 (6 per cent) and Cork with 1,156 (6 per cent).

Where the transmission of the disease is known, community transmission was found in 63 per cent of the cases, where close contacts account for 34 per cent and travel abroad 3 per cent.

The latest figures come as Ireland prepares for another two weeks of restrictions, put in place in March, in an effort to combat the virus.

However, a phased lifting of the restrictions on Irish life will begin on May 18th, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced on Friday evening.

What about travelling abroad?

On Saturday Minister for Health Simon Harris raised doubts about the possibility of people being able to travel overseas this year, saying that it was "not looking good".

He said the advice at the moment was that people should not leave the island of Ireland and said that it was looking highly unlikely that people could take foreign holidays this year. Mr Harris told RTÉ that any incoming travellers had to self-isolate for 14 days as a precaution to prevent the spread of the virus and that other countries had similar restrictions in place.

In-bound visitors had to complete a Public Health Passenger Locator form, which had to contain their contact details and address at which they will be self-isolating.

Mr Harris said the Taoiseach had asked some Ministers to assess with the Attorney General whether this needed to be supported by regulations. He added that a decision would be made on this over the coming weeks.

The Minister disclosed that as of Saturday afternoon, there had been 169,377 tests for Covid-19 carried out and that the State was carrying out more testing per head of population than many other countries.

Speaking at Government Buildings in his Friday night live televised address, Mr Varadkar warned that beginning the opening-up of the country too soon could result in “going back to square one”, with a rise in the number of cases, hospital admissions and deaths.

Should the progress in containing the virus continue, he said, the Government would begin toease the restrictions on May 18th in five phases, three weeks apart, each dependent on the success of the previous one. He warned that if any stage resulted in a "second wave" of the virus, restrictions would be reimposed.