FOUR cases of COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus, have been confirmed in the West of Ireland this evening.
The county of the victims is not yet known.
This brings the total number of cases in the republic to six and the total number on the island of Ireland to nine.
Two men and two women are said to have the virus in the west, and all have recently travelled back from Northern Italy.
Dr Tony Holohan, the Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Health said: “Tonight we can confirm there are now six cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. Contact tracing is under way for these four new cases.”
As of now, the Department of Health do not believe that there is a need to rethink their policy on mass gatherings, while earlier, Simon Harris said he expects the disease to be with us for “months and months.”
There are over 95,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide in over 80 countries, and over 3,200 deaths, most of which occurred in Hubei Province in central China.