Coronavirus: 61 New Cases Confirmed

Latest news updates for Sunday 23rd August 2020.

Latest figures:

There have been no new deaths reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre today.

There has now been a total of 1,777 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Saturday 22nd August, the HPSC has been notified of 61 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 27,969 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today;

30 are men / 30 are women

67% are under 45 years of age

23 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case

16 cases have been identified as community transmission

39 in Dublin, 13 in Kildare and the remaining 9 cases are in Cork, Kerry, Laois, Limerick, Longford and Wicklow.

The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.

Dr. Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said; “I know that at times we can all feel powerless against COVID-19. But we are not. Each of us has a range of simple tools at our disposal – knowing the risks, washing our hands, not touching our faces, keeping physically distant, avoiding crowds, limiting visitors to our homes, and wearing a face covering. But the most powerful tool of all remains our solidarity with one another – by encouraging each other to stick with the basic measures and by continuing to act and adapt together we can suppress the transmission of this virus once again.”

370 people in Laois have tested positive for the virus, Offaly has had a total of 607 cases confirmed, meanwhile in Westmeath 684 patients have had the illness. These figures are from the Department of Health and are measured at midnight on Friday 21 August.

Schools:

The rising R rate of infection is giving teachers cause for concern ahead of the reopening of schools over the next week.

Preparations have been underway at the country’s 4,000 schools for a number of weeks, with a range of new measures in place to protect pupils and staff.

Teachers unions are warning that they still don’t know what will happen if schools are forced to close down due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

The General Secretary of the INTO John Boyle says the government need to be more precise with their planning:

Hotels:

The Irish Hotels Federation's raising issue with the way government's communicating updated public health advice to businesses, amid the 'golfgate' controversy.

In a statement, the representative body's highlighting 'limitations' with the government's approach of announcing changes at press conferences in the absence of updated operational guidelines.

It says this time-lag can create 'significant challenges' due to public expectations around the newly announced advice.

GPs:

GPs say they're seeing far more people whose symptoms require them to get tested for Covid-19.

Yesterday there were 156 more confirmed cases and two deaths from the virus reported.

A new record for the number of tests in one day was set on Friday, with HSE labs processing over 13-thousand samples.

Dr Mary Favier, President of the Irish College of General Practitioners, says efforts to fight the virus depend on that work

Local figures:

156 more people have caught Covid-19 here and two more patients have died.

The latest official figures reveal 55 new cases in the capital and 36 in Kildare, while twelve were recorded in Tipperary. 9 in Limerick, 7 in Kilkenny, 6 in Waterford.

 The remaining 31 cases are in Carlow, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow.

27,908 people are now known to have contracted Covid-19 in the Republic.

1,777 people have now died.

The total numbers in the midlands, as of measured at midnight on Thursday 20th August, stands at 1,655.

683 people in Westmeath have diagnosed with the illness, while the total in Offaly is 605 and 367 in Laois.

Note: The acting Chief Medical Officer, Ronan Glynn, releases figures for the counties with the highest number of cases as of midnight, and the latest county by county breakdown available from the Department of Health are measured at midnight on Thursday 20th August. 

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