A further 295 cases have also been confirmed.
295 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the country today and eight more patients have died.
Six of the deceased were from the east of Ireland, one was from the south and another patient was located in the west of the country. The median age of today's deceased is 86 and six of them were understood to have underlying health problems.
The total number of deaths in the Republic now stands at 54, while the total number of confirmed cases now stands at 2,910.
The data released today was correct as of midnight, Saturday 28th March shows that:
- 50% of the cases are male and 49% are female
- There are now 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%)
- Community transmission accounts for 50% of cases, close contact accounts for 27%, travel abroad accounts for 23%
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said:
“We are beginning to see encouraging signs in our efforts to flatten the curve. 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), added that:
“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.”
