A FURTHER 44 deaths related to Covid-19 have been confirmed by the Department of Health this evening.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan also confirmed that there are 597 new cases of the coronavirus in the country, and 112 more Irish cases from a testing backlog confirmed by a lab in Germany.

Holohan also said that there’s a testing capacity of 100,000 tests per week for six months; earlier, the HSE’s Anne O’Connor confirmed that the Covid-19 step-down facility in Citywest has been leased for seven months until December.

The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland now stands at 13,980 and there have sadly been 530 deaths.

Of those whose deaths were announced today, 25 of the 44 people were reported as having underlying medical conditions.

Of the 44 deaths, 33 were located in the east, three were in the north west, three were in the south, and five were in the west of the country.

The deaths included 19 females and 25 males. The median age of today’s reported deaths is 84; the total median age of the 530 people with Covid-19 who have died is 83.

308 (58%) of those who died were male, and 222 (42%) were female. The age of those who have died is between 23-105 years.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) said that 316 of these cases were admitted to hospital, with 45 admitted to ICU.

This evening’s update comes a day after Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said that the growth of new infections in this country has plateaued.

Last night, 629 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in this country.

The cases confirmed from the lab in Germany represent the processing of a backlog of Irish samples, some of which date back to mid-March. The HSE has said it is hoped the backlog would be eliminated this week.

Analysis of Ireland’s confirmed cases

As of midnight on Wednesday 15 April, when we had 13,012 cases, the HSPC gave the following analysis of confirmed Covid-19 cases: