Breaking: No new deaths and 59 new cases of Covid-19 in Republic

There are no new confirmed deaths from COVID-19 in the Republic of Ireland today, the Department of Health has announced.

This is the first time no new deaths were reported since March.

The first death was reported on March 11 and a total of 1,606 people have died after contracting the coronavirus in the Republic. 

A further 59 cases were confirmed at this evening’s briefing, bringing the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 24,698.

Dr Tony Holohan stressed that there is a drop in reported deaths over weekends. He warned, “There’s always a weekend effect in terms of reporting, so I seem to recall there were four deaths last Monday, and the following day there was maybe a jump."

He also stressed that we won’t know the effects entering Phase One will have on figures for another week.