17 further COVID-19 deaths confirmed
The Department of Health has announced the deaths of 17 more COVID-19 patients, bringing the total in the in the Republic to 71.
Meanwhile, there have been 325 more confirmed cases in the past 24 hours – a total of 3235.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan said 52 of the new cases are men, while 19 are women.
He said more than eight in ten are over the age of 70 and two-thirds of them are in the east of the country.
Work on children’s hospital halted
Work on the new National Children’s Hospital is to cease due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Construction continued this week, despite the Government’s call for all non-essential workers to remain at home until Easter Sunday at the earliest.
On Saturday, officials published a list of essential services that could continue to operate through the lockdown.
The list includes construction on essential health projects relevant to the fight against COVID-19 – but made no mention of wider State projects.
North and south to coordinate COVID-19 response
Health officials north and south of the border are to work together to coordinate the response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
It comes after representatives from the Irish and UK Governments and the Stormont Executive held a conference call to discuss the crisis.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said the representatives agreed that the pandemic “does not respect borders” and that there is a “compelling case for effective cooperation north-south and east-west.”
It said they agreed that everything possible will be done in co-ordination and cooperation between the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to tackle the outbreak.
The growth rate of new coronavirus cases reported here has almost halved from a fortnight ago.
However, Ireland has yet to see results from the tightened coronavirus restrictions announced last Friday.
That is according to Professor Phillip Nolan, chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG).
He says the next seven days are vital to see if we can contain the spread of the coronavirus.
A woman in her 50s has been found dead in “unexplained circumstances” at a house in Dublin.
Gardaí said the woman was found dead at the house in Killiney earlier today.
The house has been preserved for a technical examination.
Garda said the results of a post-mortem, due to take place tomorrow, will determine the course of the investigation.
