While over 16,000 people nationwide have tested positive for Covid-19, over half of those diagnosed with the virus have recovered while 856 people have been discharged from hospital settings.
In Clare, the number of positive cases continues to increase and there are now 164 people in the county who have tested positive, up four from the previous tally announced on Sunday night.
Forty four more deaths have been recorded bringing the total number of positive cases in Ireland to 16, 040. Of that tally, 8,377 patients have fully recovered from the virus. An additional 856 people have been discharged from hospital settings.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan said of the recovery rate doesn’t surprised them. “It is giving us a picture which is broadly similar to what our expectation has been,” he noted.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) said of the 44 deaths, 37 were in the east of the country, three in the south, two in the west and north west. They were 26 females and 18 males with a median age of 87. So far, 730 people have lost their lives because of the virus in Ireland.
The setting of total deaths revealed that 295 were in a hospital environment, 46 were in ICU and 502 in a residential setting.
Delays for test results are still ongoing in parts of the country. Individuals have been between 16 days to a month for a result.
Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, Dr Cillian De Gascun said “a significant amount of work is ongoing in that area”. He said the turnaround time for tests is now between 24-36 hours per sample with about 1,300 – 1,500 tests carried out per day.
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A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.