Covid-19 payments to cost State up to €5bn

The cost of the €350-a-week pandemic payment and the wage-support schemes alone have now been budgeted at €4bn-€5bn over 12 weeks — up from an original estimate of €3.7bn, the Department of Finance said. File picture.

Almost one million people are now either unemployed or receiving some form of Covid-19 emergency payment — just over four weeks since the lockdown started.

It comes as a further 38 deaths from the virus were confirmed, bringing the overall toll to 444.