The health authorities are set to unveil a range of new measures to tackle the Covid-19 crisis as latest figures revealed another significant rise in the numbers who have contracted the coronavirus and lost their lives.

At the end of a tense week during which the death toll began to mount in double-digit numbers, a further 17 people died yesterday and there were 331 confirmed new cases, bringing the total to 137 deaths and 4,604 cases.

But with the authorities warning that the crisis has not peaked and may not do so for another two weeks, there is also a growing awareness this weekend that Ireland is undergoing a fundamental change, such has been the profound impact of the crisis.

Political leaders yesterday issued statements of encouragement to the public, from the Taoiseach to the Fianna Fail leader - and the new Labour leader Alan Kelly, who will be asked to join government formation talks this week, also said: "Ireland has changed utterly in the last eight weeks with the spread of Covid-19."

Expand Close Capacity: Dr Cillian De Gascun of the advisory group. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin Colin Keegan / Facebook

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Whatsapp Capacity: Dr Cillian De Gascun of the advisory group. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

While Mr Kelly indicated that Labour was open to talks and would play a constructive role, the country's chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan warned that people needed to redouble their efforts to beat the virus.

"It has been a truly nationwide effort to stop the spread of this virus and to protect the vulnerable. We need to keep it going. We need to flatten the curve even more than we have," he said.

The Government is deploying GPs to the frontline in the war on Covid-19 following a grim week in which the death toll from the pandemic doubled.

From this week, doctors will be posted to the first of 40 community assessment centres which are scheduled to open across the country for patients who have or are assumed to have the virus.

They will refer sick patients to hospital, to self-isolate at home, or to one of the self-isolation accommodation centres provided by the Government, such as Citywest.

GPs will operate the community hubs on a voluntary basis, but it is understood that their practices will receive a support grant equivalent to €120 an hour.

The measures are being ramped up to coincide with expectations that the coronavirus will peak in mid-April, as announced by the Health Service Executive's chief operations officer, Anne O'Connor, last week.

As concern mounts over the growing clusters of coronavirus infection in 40 facilities, Health Minister Simon Harris announced a €72m bailout for private nursing homes.

Private nursing home operators:

- Will be paid €800 extra per month for every resident they have on the Fair Deal scheme up to 40 residents, under the terms of the package;

- Will be paid €400 per month for the next 40 and €200 for any thereafter;

- Can claim up to €75,000 for extra expenses incurred from introducing new measures to protect residents from the coronavirus but they will have to present a business case to the Department of Health.

Mr Harris also announced a series of new public health measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus between nursing home residents and staff.

Meanwhile, efforts to resolve the Covid-19 test backlog continue. A rapid test kit that tests for Covid-19 antibodies and provides results in 15 minutes is expected to be rolled out to emergency departments and smaller hospitals. Cillian de Gascun, the director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said new laboratory capacity should see movement on the backlog.

As the growth rate in the spread of the coronavirus lowered from 33pc to 10pc, the expected surge in critically ill coronavirus patients has yet to hit the country's hospitals.

Dr Catherine Motherway, Intensive Care Consultant at University Hospital Limerick and president of the Intensive Care Association of Ireland, said intensive care units in urban centres were under pressure but were coping.

She said Limerick University Hospital had installed a giant oxygen tank that could supply 6,000 litres of oxygen per minute to patients, in anticipation of the "large number of patients" they expect to present for treatment.

"My biggest worry is how we are going to continue doing this," she said, adding that it may be "months" before the virus was finally fully under control.

In a message to Sunday Independent readers, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: "We are nine days into the latest social restrictions and every day they affect us in a different way. My approach is to take one day at a time, trying to make each one the most fruitful it can be, and never losing hope for tomorrow.

"We are living through a massive global crisis and it would be unusual if we didn't feel a little scared or overwhelmed. Some of us are grieving and others are fearful of what is to come.

"We will have good days and we will have bad days before better days return again. Today let's remember that this will pass, and hope can be contagious too."

Announcing his nursing home measures yesterday, Minister Harris said he was extending support to the sector "so that they can continue their role in the overall public health response to Covid-19".

Opposition leaders yesterday emphasised a need for stable government and a new way of doing things.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin told the Sunday Independent there was an obligation to form a government that would last five years and take decisive action to enable the country to overcome the Covid-19 crisis.

He said such a government would undertake a "new social contract" on housing, health and climate change and bio-diversity issues, such as food security.

"I am calling for a new agenda, a new social contract for all stakeholders, public and also, crucially, in the private sector, which has seen the retail sector in particular devastated. We need to re-think how we live."

The newly-elected leader of the Labour Party, Alan Kelly, said the country needed a "very different type of politics" to recover from the social and economic devastation caused by Covid-19.

"In this time of crisis Labour will offer constructive support for the national effort as we have done in over the few weeks," he said.

"As leader I will, of course, continue to engage with all parties."