Expert warns of possible ‘second wave’ as Ireland reports 14 more deaths from Covid-19

HEALTH officials in Ireland have confirmed that 14 more people have died as a result of Covid-19.

Figures released by the Department of Health late last night show that there have also been 727 more confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

It means that 334 have now died from the virus in Ireland, while there are also 9,655 confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the country. There are now 130 clusters of Covid-19 in nursing homes across the country, a cluster is defined as three or more cases at a particular location/site within a 72-hour period.

Earlier, the Minister for Health said he hoped that the backlog in testing would be cleared by the end of next week. Simon Harris said between 25,000 and 30,000 tests had been sent to Germany and “well over” half of the results had been returned, with the remainder due back by next week.

Harris said it was the government’s hope that any backlog in relation to testing would be addressed by the end of next week.

Mr Harris said they hoped to move to the place where people could get their test results within 48 hours. He said the virus was not where Ireland needed it to be and he urged people to stay the course in relation to the current restrictions.

Tight restrictions on movement, which the government introduced a fortnight ago, will not now be eased before Tuesday May 5.

Minister Harris said that Ireland currently had more capacity to test for Covid-19 than demand, based on the current case definition.