41 more people have died from Covid-19 in Ireland bringing the overall death toll to 406.
548 more cases of the coronavirus have also been diagnosed in the Republic. In addition, a further 284 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed from the backlog of tests at the laboratory in Germany.
With the German figures included, there is now a total of 11,479 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
Of the 41 deaths reported today, 36 of these were in the east of the country, four were in the west and one was in the south.
Of the 41 deaths, 25 were male and 16 were female.
The median age of today's reported deaths is 85.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said that 31 of the 41 people who died had underlying medical conditions.
Dr Holohan said that of the overall death toll, 83% of those had underlying conditions (338 of 406), and the median age was 82.
187 of the 406 deaths occurred in nursing home environments.
The Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, Dr Cillian De Gascun, has said that 90,646 Covid-19 tests have been carried out | Read more: https://t.co/qeqaMDQEWF pic.twitter.com/kzVmTL7FV2
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) April 14, 2020
To date, 277 people have been admitted to Intensive Care Units to be treated for Covid-19.
160 people are still in ICU (58%), while 77 people (28%) have already been discharged.
40 patients died in ICU.
The median age of people who are admitted to ICU is 60.
In Northern Ireland, ten more people have died in hospital from Covid-19.
In total, there have been 134 recorded hospital deaths in relation to coronavirus.
There are 85 new cases bringing the total number of confirmed cases there to 1,967.
Around 80% of cases of Covid-19 will be a mild to moderate illness, close to 14% have severe disease and around 6% are critical.
Generally, you need to be 15 minutes or more in the vicinity of an infected person and within two metres of them, to be considered at-risk, or a close contact.
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The CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland said that nursing homes are now on the frontline dealing with the surge that was forecast in acute hospitals.
Tadhg Daly said he had spoken to Minister for Health Simon Harris this evening and had welcomed the measures that had been introduced on 1 April.
He said there has been inconsistencies in what has been delivered to nursing homes across the country, but the measures are working well where they had been introduced.
Mr Daly said the sector is struggling to deal with staffing, with many isolating or waiting for tests to be carried out. He also said it is essential that nursing homes without cases must be supported to ensure they remain in that position.
IMF forecasts Ireland's economy will decline
The International Monetary Fund is forecasting that Ireland's economy will decline by 6.8% in gross domestic product (GDP) terms this year, as a result of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The figure is contained in the IMF's World Economic Outlook, published today.
The IMF believes that unemployment in Ireland will average 12.1% this year and 7.9% in 2021.
It predicts that the economy will return to growth in 2021.
Globally, the IMF is forecasting that the economy will shrink by 3% this year as a result of Covid-19.
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Meanwhile, 533,000 people have been issued payments of the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Support payment today - up 26,000 on the figure a week ago, according to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
Around 54,000 of those are receiving payments for the first time.
These Covid Pandemic payments first introduced on 16 March are in addition to the 210,000 people on the live register receiving "normal" Jobseekers' Benefit - an increase of 3,000 in the last seven days.
The Pandemic Payment figures also exclude workers whose jobs are now being subsidised under the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS), to which 42,100 employers have now signed up.
The World Health Organization's special envoy on Covid-19 has said the world cannot wait for universal testing or a vaccine to "come out of lockdown" and people will have to find new ways to live with the threat of the virus in their lives.
Dr David Nabarro said people will need to find ways to go about their business, otherwise we will be "paralysed" by the virus.
He said getting everyone on board and learning to live with this "as best we can" knowing that the coronavirus has not gone away, is key to reducing restrictions on social and economic activity.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, Dr Nabarro said it is an impossible task for everyone to be tested and the virus is "not going to stop and wait for tests so we need to defend ourselves in the midst" of it.
He said communities will have to be vigilant and find people with the disease, isolate them quickly and trace and isolate their contacts.
Earlier today, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that she has received a positive diagnosis for Covid-19.
However, Ms McDonald said she was no longer deemed to be infectious, and hoped to return to work next Monday.
In a statement released this afternoon by Sinn Féin, Ms McDonald said she was tested for Covid-19 on 28 March, and received confirmation yesterday of a positive result for the coronavirus.
The TD for Dublin Central was informed by her public health doctor that she was no longer infected, or infectious, and she said this was a great relief after weeks of feeling unwell.
