Coronavirus: Health officials planning on expanding testing capacity to 100k per week

The deaths of 44 people diagnosed with Covid-19 in the past 24 hours have been confirmed, bringing

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A “blitz” of 30,000 nursing home patients and workers will take place over the next seven to 10 days in order to address a high number of clusters of cases of Covid-19.

Also, a census of mortality across all long-term residential care facilities to be carried out this weekend to cover all deaths, Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 since January 1, 2020, regardless of where the death occurred.

Health officials said on Friday night that it is planning to expand testing capacity to 100,000 tests per week operating on a seven-day week basis for a minimum of six months to bring about a situation of real-time turnaround.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said such a ramping up of testing is “crucial” as we move into the next phase of dealing with the virus.

In relation to the 44 deaths, Dr Holohan said the number is not necessarily the number of deaths yesterday but rather a report of the deaths notified in the past 24 hours.

A number of deaths date back a number of days, Dr Holohan said.

Of those 44 deaths, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre said 33 of those were located in the east, three in the north-west, three in the south and five in the west of the country.

The deaths included 19 females and 25 males and the median age of the day’s reported deaths is 84. In total, 25 people were reported as having underlying health conditions.

A summary of all 530 deaths provided by health officials show that:

• 308 (58%) of those who died were male, 222 (42%) were female
• The age range is 23 - 105 years
• The median age of those who died is 83
• 316 of these cases were admitted to hospital with 45 admitted to ICU

As of 11.15am on Friday, officials been notified of an additional 597 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by Irish laboratories. An additional 112 confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported by a laboratory in Germany. With the latest figures from Germany included, there are now a total of 13,980 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.

In relation to demographics, 44% are male and 55% are female, with 436 clusters involving 2,723 cases. The median age of confirmed cases is 48 years and 2,082 cases (16%) have been hospitalised.

Of those hospitalised, 294 cases have been admitted to ICU and 3,347 cases are associated with healthcare workers.

In terms of geography, Dublin has the highest number of cases at 6,567 (51% of all cases) followed by Cork with 945 cases (7%).

Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 53%, close contact accounts for 42%, travel abroad accounts for 5%.

Speaking to reporters, Dr Holohan said: “We endorsed a proposal to increase testing of staff and residents across all long-term residential care settings including nursing homes. The behaviour of the virus among vulnerable groups who live in these care settings continues to be a concern and this remains a priority for NPHET.

“While we are suppressing the disease among the general public, we cannot afford to become complacent.

To remain safe from Covid-19 we need to continue to wash our hands thoroughly and regularly, cough into our elbows and practice social distancing.

"These simple measures can slow down the spread of this virus and save lives.”