HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed that a further 52 patients have died as a result of Covid-19 in Ireland.

This includes 10 ‘probable deaths’, where it’s suspected the person who died had Covid-19, but a test is yet to confirm that.

It brings the total number of deaths in Ireland, including probable deaths, to 1,063. The latest figure includes three denotifications, in which a death was originally believed to be from Covid-19 but has since been confirmed that is not the case.

The total number of confirmed cases has reached 18,561.

Data from the HPSC as of midnight on Thursday – and in relation to 17,420 cases – shows that 57% of cases were reported in females, while 43% were in males.

The median age of confirmed cases is 49 years old, and in some 2,536 cases, a person was hospitalised.

Of those hospitalised, some 344 cases have been admitted to ICU.

Dublin has the highest number of cases at 9,010 at around 50% of all cases, followed by Cork with 1,103 cases (6%).

Testing

The HSE is planning to significantly increase its testing capacity over the coming weeks.

Minister Simon Harris said today said labs have processed 127,319 tests to date.

The HSE is due to publish a plan over the coming days on how it will increase testing capacity. Harris said they want to arrive at a point where there is the capacity to do up to 100,000 tests a week “should that need arise”.

“And I think what you’ve already seen this week, we’ve done an awful lot of testing in our nursing homes, prioritizing them, with over 20,000 tests completed as of yesterday, and within a period of less than a week amongst residents and staff and the nursing home sector,” he said.

“It is eight weeks, since we had our first case of Covid-19 in this country. It might seem an awful lot longer. It’s been a really tough, traumatic, challenging time for Irish people.

“But look at all that has been achieved in these weeks in terms of ramping up capacity in our hospitals, building a testing system from scratch,” he said adding that “progress is fragile” and urged the public to continue to stay at home and restrict movement.

Globally, the death toll has reached almost 200,000, with over 120,000 of those occurring in Europe.