A FURTHER 41 people have died from Covid-19 in Ireland, according to the latest figures provided by the Department of Health this evening.

There are also 548 new cases of the coronavirus confirmed in Ireland. Alongside that, a further 284 cases have been confirmed from the backlog being processed by a laboratory in Germany.

In all, 406 people have now died from Covid-19 in Ireland and there are 11,479 confirmed cases.

A summary of the 41 new deaths shows:

36 deaths located in the east, four in the west and one in the south of the country

These deaths included 16 females and 25 males

The median age of today’s reported deaths is 85

31 of the 41 who died were reported as having underlying health conditions

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.

On Saturday, Minister for Health Simon Harris said it is hoped the remainder of this backlog – around 10,000 cases - would be processed by the end of this week. The cases confirmed in German labs are outlined separately from the new cases confirmed from Irish labs in today’s update from the Department of Health.

Today’s report also confirms that as of midnight last night, 90,646 tests have been carried out. Of these tests, 62,952 have been completed in Irish laboratories and 27,694 have been completed in a laboratory in Germany.

Over the past week, 20,468 tests were carried out in Irish laboratories and of these, 4,233 were positive.

“Having come through a challenging few weeks, we have significantly strengthened testing capacity and will continue to do so over the coming week, to put us in a very strong position to identify and suppress the virus,” Dr Cillian De Gascun, chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team’s expert advisory group said.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan added: “We remain concerned about the prevalence of Covid-19 in nursing homes and residential care settings.

“The National Public Health Emergency Team is monitoring developments in these facilities and continues to advance supports and actions where needed.

“From the beginning, we have been aware that vulnerable groups, including the elderly, are at greater risk from this virus. These groups will continue to be our priority.”

Restrictions placed upon the people of Ireland are set to remain in place until 5 May at the earliest, with efforts continuing to flatten the curve of new cases of the virus here.

On Sunday, senior public health official Professor Philip Nolan said lifting these restrictions would have to be done very carefully to avoid a “potentially very dangerous” second wave of cases of Covid-19 here.

With reporting by Hayley Halpin and from Michelle Hennessy at the Department of Health