COVID-19

Five Covid 19 related deaths reported in Ireland, including 4 late notifications

Five Covid 19 related deaths reported in Ireland, including 4 late notifications

There have been five further deaths related to Covid 19, the Department of Health has this evening confirmed.

It brings the total death toll to 1,768 with the virus in the country.

Department of Health have also confirmed 69 further cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, taking the total number to 26,372.

4 out of the 5 deaths reported today are late notifications.

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Meanwhile The government is warning that the country has shifted away from its trajectory in battling Covid-19 in the past week.

A total of 362 new confirmed cases had been reported over the seven days previous to this evening.

There are now five people receiving treatment in intensive care units, while 10 people who contracted the virus are in hospital.

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One person was discharged from ICU with the virus in the last 24 hours, while five people were discharged from hospital in the same time period.

Government official Elizabeth Canavan says the decision to remain in Phase 3 of reopening was justified:

"We knew that there would likely be some increase in the numbers, however in the last week or so things have shifted away from the trajectory we were on.

"We have had more cases every day, more cases nationally overall and increasing number of cases in vulnerable groups.

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"We have hav outbreaks in workplace settings, more young people are getting the disease and there has been a shift in location of the majority of cases from Dublin to other counties.

Daily cases

This comes as health experts are warning that Ireland could see tighter restrictions imposed because of increasing rate of daily cases in Ireland

In the past week and a half, since July 27th, the Republic has averaged 42.7 new confirmed cases per day. The worst day in that period being July 30th, with 85 cases.

Associate professor in Trinity College Dublin, Tomas Ryan says there needs to be a change before the situation gets out of control.

"In a couple of weeks we could be in a situation quite similar to what happened in Melbourne or Aberdeen and no one wants to see that. Even beyond the next couple of weeks, as we move into September, we deal with bigger challenges than we have been facing, when schools open and pubs open.

"As winter comes and flu season comes, we need a more robust system to be doing this. We cannot be just walking a tightrope. We need proper guard rails."

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