Another big daily rise in confirmed cases in Westmeath
Another 51 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Westmeath.
According to figures released tonight, as of midnight on Tuesday, there were 309 confirmed cases in the county, up from the 258 announced yesterday.
There were 57 cases in Roscommon at midnight on Tuesday.
The increases come as the country experienced the largest death toll in a single day, with 43 deaths of patients with COVID-19.
The Department of Health said that 34 deaths were in the east, four in the west and five in the south.
The people involved were 22 males and 21 females. deaths located in the east, 4 in the west, 5 in the south of the country.
There have now been 486 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of 1pm Wednesday, an additional 724 confirmed cases were reported, bringing the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland to 13,271.
Despite the latest increase, the Department of Health said the restrictions were working.
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 6 weeks.
“We now estimate our R0 to be between 0.7 and 1.0, which means current restrictions are successfully suppressing the disease.”
The R0 or R-Naught sometimes referred to as the reproductive number indicates the average number of people who will catch a disease from a contagious person.
When that number falls below 1, it indicates the disease is on the decline.
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.”