While the number of people in Ireland who have died with Covid-19 continues to grow, so too does the number who have recovered from the disease.

Some people who have come home from hospital are being monitored through apps on their phones.

Colmán Mac Cionnaith is very happy to be back home in Dún Laoghaire. Last month his wife took him to their local Emergency Department at St Michael's Hospital after he woke up with symptoms of Covid-19.

She did not see him again for 18 days, and during that time he spent four days in the Intensive Care Unit at St Vincent's University Hospital.

Colmán has asthma and needed oxygen while in hospital. He said he came very close to being intubated and being put on a ventilator, and is grateful it did not come to that.

He was allowed to go home on condition he self-isolate for two weeks and that the hospital monitor his health remotely.

He was given a finger pulse oximeter which measures the oxygen levels in his blood and his pulse. He was also given a thermometer. He uses these several times daily and uploads the information on to an app on his smartphone.

This allows the hospital to make sure everything is okay, and to call him in if any of his vital signs give cause for concern.

The oximeter is supposed to connect with his phone via Bluetooth, but as that has not been working for him, he inputs the data manually.

An error one night, when inputting the blood oxygen level, prompted a call from his hospital doctor, a reassuring sign that they are still looking out for him.

Colmán is very grateful for the care he received in hospital, from the doctor who, when giving him the news that he had tested positive for Covid-19, said: "Don't worry, you'll get through this," to the ICU nurses who cared for him every hour of the day and night.

He says he is an example of how most people who get Covid-19, and most people who have to go hospital, will pull through.

He was very weak when he came home from hospital, but after two weeks at home he is making good progress.