Coronavirus: One death and 211 new cases in Ireland

Dr Ronan Glynn. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

One further death due to Covid-19 has been reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

They have also been notified of 211 new cases of coronavirus in Ireland.

The death toll from Covid-19 in Ireland now stands at 1,781 while the total number of cases is now 30,571.

121 of today’s cases are in Dublin, with 17 in Louth, 10 in Limerick and eight in Cork.

Another seven are in Westmeath, seven in Wicklow, six in Laois, five in Donegal and five in Galway.

The remaining 24 cases are in Carlow, Clare, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Meath, Offaly, Roscommon, Tipperary, and Waterford.

Of today's cases:

• 100 are men / 108 are women 
• 73% are under 45 years of age 
• 28% are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case 
• 42 cases have been identified as community transmission

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn has urged the public to limit their social contacts this weekend. 

He said: "While we are seeing a continued increase in cases, particularly in Dublin, this is at least partly due to the willingness of people to heed our core messages around knowing the symptoms and coming forward promptly for testing. 

"This together with all of the other key behaviours will help to break the chains of transmission in our communities.

"This weekend, please limit your social contacts, especially visitors to your home. Avoid crowds, keep your distance from others and wear a face covering where appropriate."

It comes as a CSO report found that there has been a dramatic increase in confirmed Covid-19 cases among children and young people.

Almost one-third of all confirmed cases in the last 10 weeks are now among those aged under 24, compared to less than 10% at the start of July.

Meanwhile, the Government is to consider introducing tighter restrictions in Dublin following advice from public health experts.

It comes amid concern over the growing number of Covid-19 cases in the city.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Cabinet will consider advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) in relation to the growing number of cases in Dublin.

The Government is also expected to rubber stamp the final details of its Covid-19 medium-term plan, which is to be published next week.

“We are developing a new framework and a new plan in terms of dealing with Covid for the next six months.

“We have worked with the chief medical officer (Dr Ronan Glynn) in this regard and NPHET, that is work still in progress,” Mr Martin said on Friday.

“One of the key aspects of that will be a modification of the structure by which advice is filtered to government and making sure we can implement whatever is advised.

“We will consider NPHET’s advice on Tuesday in relation to Dublin but we will be publishing a national plan in relation to dealing with Covid in all its aspects.

“In that framework, consideration has to be given to the economic situation, to protecting jobs, making sure citizens have a quality of life.

“Fundamentally what will drive the plan is personal behaviour and all of us have to focus on personal behaviour.

“People are fatigued, I understand that, people are fed up of restrictions and they would love to go back to the normality we once experienced but the virus will be around for a while.

“We have got to be smart and resilient in how we deal with it.”