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The coronavirus is now "contained and effectively suppressed" in the Irish population at large, our leading doctors have said.

As the cases number rose by 724 today and a further 43 deaths were announced, Dr Tony Holohan said health officials "are increasingly confident" that Covid-19 was being suppressed generally across the country.

The Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health fired a warning shot over the rise of cases and deaths in nursing homes, however.

He said today: "The data clearly shows that there are two very different experiences of COVID-19 in Ireland today.

"In the population at large, the virus is contained and effectively suppressed.

"However, the experience of the disease in long-term residential care settings continues to be a source of concern.

"In order to protect the vulnerable the first task was to suppress the virus in the population at large.

"We are increasingly confident that we are achieving this.

"All of our efforts now need to be on extinguishing COVID-19 in our community residential settings, including nursing homes."

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of NPHET Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, added: "Our model today is showing four reproductive numbers, illustrating the different stages of the disease in Ireland over the past six weeks.

"We now estimate our R0 (the reproductive rate of the virus) to be between 0.7 and 1.0, which means current restrictions are successfully suppressing the disease."

The 724 cases reported today are made up of 629 new cases reported from Irish labs - a new daily record - and 95 older cases from a German lab where samples were sent, as of 1pm on Wednesday, April 15.

Today's news also takes the death toll in Ireland to 486.

The revised figure comes from validation of data at the HPSC, which resulted in the denotification of one death.

There are now 13,271 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Ireland.