Dark day in battle against virus but experts say restrictions are working

Forty-three people diagnosed with Coronavirus lost their lives yesterday in what was the darkest day so far in the battle against this pandemic in Ireland.
But experts say there are signs that restrictions are beginning to make a difference in the fight against the virus.
To date, there have been 13,271 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland, and 486 people have died, according to figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
There are now 310 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in County Cavan and 161 in neighbouring County Monaghan. Those are the official numbers as of midnight on Tuesday, April 14, the latest date for which a county-by-county breakdown is available.

There were over 700 new cases reported yesterday - 629 by Irish laboratories and an additional 95 cases from a lab in Germany.
Of the latest victims, 34 were located in the east of the country, four in the west, and five in the south of the country.
Twenty-two men and 21 women lost their lives and the median age of the victins was 84 years. Of those who died, 27 were reported as having underlying health conditions.

The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.
The latest data from the HPSC, as of midnight, Tuesday, April 14 (12,425 cases), reveals:
55% are female and 45% are male, with 425 clusters involving 2,451 cases
The median age of confirmed cases is 48 years
2,026 cases (16%) have been hospitalised
Of those hospitalised, 284 cases have been admitted to ICU
3,090 cases are associated with healthcare workers
Dublin has the highest number of cases at 6,337 (51% of all cases) followed by Cork with 916 cases (7%)
Of those for whom transmission status is known: community transmission accounts for 51%, close contact accounts for 43%, travel abroad accounts for 6%
Professor Philip Nolan, chair of NPHET Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said; “Our model today is showing four reproductive numbers, illustrating the different stages of the disease in Ireland over the past six weeks.
“We now estimate our R0 to be between 0.7 and 1.0, which means current restrictions are successfully suppressing the disease.”
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: “The data clearly shows that there are two very different experiences of COVID-19 in Ireland today. In the population at large, the virus is contained and effectively suppressed.
“However, the experience of the disease in long-term residential care settings continues to be a source of concern.
“In order to protect the vulnerable the first task was to suppress the virus in the population at large. We are increasingly confident that we are achieving this. All of our efforts now need to be on extinguishing COVID-19 in our community residential settings, including nursing homes.”