Nine COVID-19 deaths in one day

Ten people diagnosed with COVID-19 have died in a 24-hour period, the Department of Health has confirmed.

It’s a startling and tragic doubling of number who have died in Ireland, associated with COVID-19.

Yesterday, the Department of Health had announced nine deaths.

The most recent patients who died include three females and seven males. Nine of those ten patients were in the east of the country and one in the south.

The median age of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who have died is 79 years, 68% are male and 32% are female.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has been informed of 255 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland, as at 1pm, today.

There are now 1,819 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

The number of confirmed cases in Offaly, as of midnight, Tuesday, was 16, another jump of three from the 13 confirmed on midnight Monday.

Offering sympathies to the families of the deceased, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan admitted: “We expect to see more deaths.”

He said: “If the number of cases continue to increase, the number of mortalities sadly will continue to increase in line with that.”

He said that in relative terms the number of deaths was a small number and highlighted that in flu season, up to 1,000 deaths could be attributed to influenza.