There’s been a further 41 deaths from COVID-19 since yesterday (Monday), and there’s now 219 diagnosed cases in Kerry – which is up 19.

This evening (Tuesday), the Health Protection Surveillance Centre revealed that there’s now 832 new cases in Ireland which includes tests results from both Ireland and Germany.

In total there’s now 11,479 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ireland, and 406 Irish deaths.

Of the 41 deaths:

• 36 deaths located in the east, four in the west, one in the south of the country
• the people included 16 females and 25 males
• the median age of today’s reported deaths is 85
• 31 people were reported as having underlying health conditions

As of 1pm today (Tuesday), the HPSC has been notified of the following cases;

• An additional 548 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by Irish laboratories
• An additional 284 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by a laboratory in Germany

As of midnight yesterday (Monday), 90,646 tests have been carried out.

Of these tests;

• 62,952 have been completed in Irish laboratories
• 27,694 completed in a laboratory in Germany

Over the past week, 20,468 tests were carried out in Irish laboratories and of these 4,233 were positive, giving a positivity rate of 21%.

“Having come through a challenging few weeks, we have significantly strengthened testing capacity and will continue to do so over the coming week, to put us in a very strong position to identify and suppress the virus,” Dr Cillian De Gascun, Chair of NPHET’s Expert Advisory Group said.

Today’s data from the HPSC, as of midnight, Sunday, (10,385 cases), reveals:

• 54% are female and 45% are male, with 408 clusters involving 1,999 cases
• the median age of confirmed cases is 48 years
• 1,903 cases (18%) have been hospitalised
• Of those hospitalised, 275 cases have been admitted to ICU
• 2,707 cases are associated with healthcare workers
• Dublin has the highest number of cases at 5,438 (52% of all cases) followed by Cork with 780 cases (8%)

The National Public Health Emergency Team met today (Tuesday) to continue its ongoing review of Ireland’s response to COVID-19. Discussed at today’s meeting;

• Residential care settings; In addition to existing protective measures and financial supports, HSE will put in place a coordinated national process to identify the prevalence of COVID-19 across nursing homes and other residential healthcare settings; as recommended by the ECDC.
• Testing; HPSC to develop a strategy to conduct a seroprevalence study which will identify the proportion of the population who have ever had COVID-19, regardless of testing.

“We remain concerned about the prevalence of COVID-19 in nursing homes and residential care settings,” Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said.

“The National Public Health Emergency Team is monitoring developments in these facilities and continues to advance supports and actions where needed. From the beginning, we have been aware that vulnerable groups, including the elderly, are at greater risk from this virus. These groups will continue to be our priority.”

Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer, HSE, said; “We are not seeing a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 positive cases in our hospitals or our ICUs over the last number of days, and that is down to the efforts of every individual who has followed advice to stay apart and slow the spread of the virus. To everyone playing their part, the health service is grateful.”