Coronavirus: 52 new deaths in Ireland as total toll on the island rises to 1,579

There have now been 1,579 Irish deaths from COVID-19 in total - 347 in the north and 1,232 in the south.

Today the Department of Health in Belfast reported nine new deaths in hospitals while its southern counterpart reported 43 additional fatalities.

The number of patients to have tested positive for COVID-19 in Ireland has now risen to 24,148 with the positive case total in the north rising by 73 o 3,536. The southern total increased by 359 to 20,612.

There has still been no new geographical breakdown on the number of cases of COVID-19 in Derry and Strabane provided by the Department of Health in Belfast since the beginning of last week.

That’s because the publication of a new Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard had to be temporarily suspended after a reporting error.

Last Monday, April 20, when we last got figures, it was confirmed that 15 people in Derry and Strabane had died after contracting SARS-CoV-2 and that 124 people in total had tested positive. There have been no figures for Derry and Strabane since.

This week Health Minister Robin Swann said he wanted to continue to see the ‘maximum possible transparency’ when it came to reporting coronavirus data.

This evening it was confirmed that the total number of COVID-19 cases in Donegal had risen to 456 (2.3 per cent of all cases in the south). The Donegal data was released today but is accurate up until midnight on Tuesday.