Ireland has seen its largest one-day increase in coronavirus cases today, with 936 new cases confirmed.
Fifteen of those diagnoses were in Donegal, as the county total rises to 431.
Twenty eight more people have lost their lives as a result of Covid-19.
This brings the number of deaths in the Republic to 794. The Department of Health has said that three more deaths have been ‘de-notified’ after it emerged that the patients died of other causes.
There have been 361 deaths of nursing home residents, 87 of these deaths occurred in a hospital.
The number of additional cases of the virus brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 17,607. The high increase in cases has been linked with widespread testing efforts underway in long term residential settings. Today’s update shows that 387 new cases and 13 deaths were notified in nursing homes in the last 24 hours.
New estimates from the Department of Health today show that two thirds of people diagnosed with Covid-19 have recovered.
In positive news, Minister for Health Simon Harris has told the Dail today that the reproduction rate for Covid-19 has fallen again. The number has decreased to between 0.5 and 1, down from 0.7 to 1 a week ago. This means that the average person who gets infected now will pass the virus on to no more than one other person.
At the beginning of April, 100 people a day were being admitted to hospital with Covid-19. That is now reduced to 40.
“The next 12 days matter and what you do matters,” Minister Harris tweeted.
