Coronavirus: Thirty-six cases (2%) of COVID-19 in Donegal as Irish death toll rises to 76

There have now been 3443 confirmed cases in Ireland - 2910 in the south and 533 in the north.

Seventy-six people have now died from the illness in Ireland - 54 in the south and 22 in the north.

Today’s data from the HPSC in Dublin reveal that, as of midnight, Saturday, March 28, (2,475 cases), 50% are male and 49% are female, with 111 clusters involving 428 cases.

The median age of confirmed cases is 47 years and 645 cases (26%) have been hospitalised.

Of those hospitalised, 84 cases have been admitted to ICU.

578 cases (23%) are associated with healthcare workers.

In Donegal there were 36 confirmed cases (2%), a rise of 12 from 24 on Friday.

Dublin has the highest number of cases at 1,393 (56% of all cases) followed by Cork with 217 cases (9%)

Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 50%, close contact accounts for 27%, and travel abroad accounts for 23%

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre advised it was today informed that 8 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in the 26 counties have died.

Six deaths were located in the east, 1 in the south and 1 in the west of the country.

The patients included 5 females and 3 males and the median age of today’s reported deaths is 86.

Six patients were reported as having underlying health conditions.

Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: "We are beginning to see encouraging signs in our efforts to flatten the curve. However, we cannot become complacent as we are still seeing new cases and more ICU admissions every day.

“Our strategy remains the implementation of public health restrictions to interrupt the spread of the virus and prevent people from arriving to ICU in first place.”

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group (IEMAG), said: "We know what an unmitigated epidemic looks like, we are not on that track.

“The model reveals that before restrictions were in place, daily growth rate of confirmed cases was at 33%. This has fallen in recent days to around 15%. But it is still growing and needs to fall further.

“It takes time to see the impact of our efforts in the numbers. It will be another 7-10 days before we have a reliable picture of how effective our collective efforts have been.”

The Department of Health recently published an “Ethical Framework for Decision-Making in a Pandemic”.

Dr. Siobhán O’Sullivan, Chief Bioethics Officer, Department of Health, said: "Clinicians have to make tough decisions, often on a daily basis. This framework has been developed to support clinicians in making sound clinical judgement, within a very complex environment.

“We will continue to support our healthcare professionals, especially in the toughest aspects of their work.”