There is a total of 295 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationally, 60 cases of COVID-19 in Kerry, while eight patients in Ireland have died since yesterday (Sunday).

So far in Ireland there’s 2,910 and 54 COVID-19 related deaths.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today (Monday) been informed that eight patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Ireland have died.

• Six deaths located in the east, one in the south and one in the west of the country.
• The patients included five females and three males.
• The median age of today’s reported deaths is 86.
• Six patients were reported as having underlying health conditions.

Today’s data from HPSC, as of midnight, Saturday, March 28 (2,475 cases), reveals:

• 50% are male and 49% are female, with 111 clusters involving 428 cases
• the median age of confirmed cases is 47 years
• 645 cases (26%) have been hospitalised
• Of those hospitalised, 84 cases have been admitted to ICU
• 578 cases (23%) are associated with healthcare workers
• Dublin has the highest number of cases at 1,393 (56% of all cases) followed by Cork with 217 cases (9%)
• Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 50%, close contact accounts for 27%, travel abroad accounts for 23%

“We are beginning to see encouraging signs in our efforts to flatten the curve,” Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said.

“However, we cannot become complacent as we are still seeing new cases and more ICU admissions every day.

“Our strategy remains the implementation of public health restrictions to interrupt the spread of the virus and prevent people from arriving to ICU in first place.”

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG), said; “We know what an unmitigated epidemic looks like, we are not on that track.

“The model reveals that before restrictions were in place, daily growth rate of confirmed cases was at 33%. This has fallen in recent days to around 15%. But it is still growing and needs to fall further.
“It takes time to see the impact of our efforts in the numbers. It will be another 7-10 days before we have a reliable picture of how effective our collective efforts have been.”

The Department of Health recently published an “Ethical Framework for Decision-Making in a Pandemic”.

“Clinicians have to make tough decisions, often on a daily basis,” Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan, Chief Bioethics Officer, Department of Health, said.
“This framework has been developed to support clinicians in making sound clinical judgement, within a very complex environment.

“We will continue to support our healthcare professionals, especially in the toughest aspects of their work.”