Dr Tony Holohan (right)

The worst daily update of deaths since crisis began


The Department of Health has confirmed it has been notified of another 77 deaths today.

It’s by far the largest increase in deaths since the COVID-19 crisis began.

However, at the nightly briefing today, Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan clarified that the receipt today of a notification of a death does not indicate that the death took place in the last 24 hours.

Mr Holohan has previously displayed a graph based on the actual date of deaths which appeared to indicate that the death rate peaked some 12 days ago.

Some 67 of the deaths are located in the east, four in the west, four in the north-west and two in the south of the country

There have now been 687 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of 1pm Monday, April 20, the HPSC has been notified of an additional 401 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by Irish laboratories.

There is now a total of 15,652 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

The most recent county breakdown, provided tonight, but dating from midnight on Saturday, shows there were 369 cases in Westmeath, up ten from the previous night. There were 91 cases in Roscommon on midnight, Saturday.