Coronavirus: Death toll in Republic now stands at 174

The deaths of another 16 patients - 10 males and six females - diagnosed with coronavirus have been reported on Monday by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

Eleven of the deaths were in the east, four in the north-west and one in the west. Four of the patients were reported as having underlying health conditions. There have now been 174 coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, related deaths in the Republic. The median age of Monday’s deaths is 78.

NPHET also reported 370 new confirmed cases on Monday. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 5,364.

Of the deaths that have occurred so far, 132 took place in hospital, including 20 in ICU. Some 127 of the patients (73 per cent) had an underlying condition. Men greatly outnumber women among the fatalities - 114 against 60.

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Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan urged people to "stay at home" for Easter in order to continue limiting the spread of the virus.

“I think our advice will be for people to stay at home and if they have second homes not to travel to them, and not to engage in any unnecessary travel or leisure activities,” he told the NPHET briefing on Monday evening.

Patience

Dr Holohan said he understood the “ask” this involved for many people, especially as the weather improves, but he appealed to the public to “have patience with us”.

The current restrictions, which are due to end on Easter Sunday, will be considered at NPHET meetings on Tuesday and on Friday.

Dr Holohan said he wasn’t anticipating any change to these “at this moment in time”.

“I anticipate we’ll still be asking people to stick with the tough measures we’ve been asking people to stick with so far”.

He said there has been progress on a continuing basis “for 10 days or more” in terms of flattening the curve of the epidemic.

“We think we’re pushing out the wave of infection [and] we think we’re pushing down the peak of that.”

While the benefit of the measures introduced 10 days ago are beginning to be seen, “we’re not all the way through”.

“That’s because this epidemic is still growing at an unsustainable rate,” he said.

At its meeting on Tuesday, NPHET will also consider the public health implications of setting up a childcare scheme to facilitate healthcare workers. The Government has said it is ready to establish such a scheme once it gets the go-ahead from public health officials.

An analysis of the 175 people diagnosed with Covid-19 who have so far been admitted to ICU shows 33 per cent were discharged while 20 died. Some 131 of these patients had an underlying condition and the median age of ICU cases was 61.

Reduction in stockpiling

Research conducted for the Department of Health shows the percentage of people stockpiling has reduced from a peak of 43 per cent in mid-March to 20 per cent.

Some 86 per cent of people believe current Government restrictions are “about right”, according to the research, while 67 per cent are interacting with family and friends over the phone.

A breakdown of cases up to last Saturday show 46 per cent were among men and 54 per cent among women.

Some 26 per cent of people were associated with healthcare workers, amounting to 1,263 cases. The breakdown show 68 per cent of healthcare worker cases occurred among women and 32 per cent among men.

One-third (33 per cent) of healthcare workers diagnosed with Covid-19 were nurses, 28 per cent were “other healthcare professionals”, 17 per cent were doctors, 11 per cent were healthcare assistants and 1.5 per cent were porters.

Roughly one-quarter of infections of healthcare workers occurred between staff and patients while two-thirds were attributed to transmission in the community and the rest were travel-related.