A further 10 coronavirus-related deaths have been announced, taking the national toll to 1,506.
Meanwhile 426 new cases have been confirmed, bringing the national total to 23,827.
It marks a steep rise in confirmed cases compared to recent days; however, the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said many of them are “not cases that have arisen in the last short period of time.”
He said there was a delay in notifications at one hospital in the south of the country, which led to an accumulation of cases the National Public Health Emergency (NPHET) was not aware of.
Meanwhile, one previously announced death has been denotified after doctors decided it was not coronavirus-related.
Dr Tony Holohan, @CMOIreland @roinnslainte
“NPHET met and have given further advice to Government. We still want to see progress over the coming days. We need to continue our physical distancing and hygiene measures if we are to continue to suppress the spread of the disease.”
— MerrionStreet.ie #StayAtHome (@merrionstreet) May 14, 2020
As of midnight on Tuesday, more than 30% (7,123) of the country’s confirmed cases were associated with healthcare workers.
Some 57% were women and 42% were men.
A total of 3,058 people had been hospitalised and 387 had been admitted to intensive care.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar today said he is increasingly confident that phase one of the reopening plan can begin as planned next week.
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET modelling group, said: “All indicators of the spread of COVID-19 are decreasing, including the average number of cases per day, number of people in hospital and ICU, admissions to ICU and number of reported deaths per day.”
“This is reinforced by our estimated reproduction number which is currently stable between 0.4 and 0.6.
“We will be monitoring this figure and the overall number of infections in the population very closely over the coming weeks.”
“We still want to see progress over the coming days,” he said.
“We need to continue our physical distancing and hygiene measures if we are to continue to suppress the spread of the disease.”
The first phase of restrictions being eased is due next Monday, May 18th and Minster Harris has said he remains “very hopeful” restrictions can be eased as plan.
HSE chief Paul Reid has warned however that Monday will not be 'the single big moment' in the easing of coronavirus restrictions, and will instead be a 'minor step along the way.'
Meanwhile, the HSE has said it is hoping turnaround times for a COVID-19 test will be three days from Monday.
