Further four deaths and 57 new cases of coronavirus
A further four people who had been diagnosed with Covid-19 have died.
The Department of Health announced the figures on Sunday. It followed confirmation on Saturday evening of 13 deaths and means there have now been a total of 1,608 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
The department also announced an additional 57 cases of the virus. This means that since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the Republic on February 29, there has been a total of 24,639 cases.
The latest data from the department shows that of the 24,569 cases confirmed by midnight on Friday, 13% - some 3,222 cases - required hospitalisation. Of these, 394 were admitted to intensive care, accounting for just over 12% of the patients who were hospitalised, and 1.6% of the total number of cases reported to the department.
Some 7,819 cases are associated with healthcare workers, accounting for just under one-third of the total number of cases.
The median age of confirmed cases is 48, with a split of 57% female and 43% male.
Dublin has the highest number of cases at 11,873, accounting for 48% of all cases. Cork has the second highest number of cases with 1,428, followed by Kildare, which has 1,392.
Meanwhile Ireland's roadmap out of lock down has been criticised by Professor Gerry Killeen, Research Chair in Applied Pathogen Ecology, in University College Cork (UCC).
“Ireland's strategy to merely flatten the curve of our national epidemic is scientifically and economically unsound," he said.
"Allowing this epidemic to persist by easing restrictions before the virus has been eliminated will do far more damage to our economy, society and health than even the most severe approaches to containment and elimination.
"Unless we change course decisively now, we will extend and deepen the economic damage done by this pandemic because we hesitated to do what was necessary, albeit for understandable reasons. Difficult as it is, our only rational choice is to seize the nettle. We must see through a sufficiently ambitious and sustained effort to make Ireland Covid free.”