778 new cases; 44 more deaths
A total of 778 new cases of Coronavirus have been diagnosed in Ireland today.
This is an increase on the 13,980 cases from yesterday and takes the overall total to 14,758.
630 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 are reported by Irish laboratories. While an additional 148 confirmed cases of COVID-19 are reported by a laboratory in Germany – this brings the total figure to 14,758.
Penneys donate care packages to staff and patients in Laois hospitals
Penneys in Portlaoise has donated a number of care packages to staff and patients in the Midlands Regional Hospital and St Fintan’s Hospital.
The clothes brand, who have a store in the Laois Shopping Centre, made the generous donation yesterday.
A number of volunteers put the care packages together which included clothes and toiletries.
You can read Alan Hartnett’s full story here.
How the number of Coronavirus cases in Laois compares to other counties relative to population
Our calculations show that there are 16.4 cases per 10,000 people in Laois, which is below the national average of 27.35 cases per 10,000 people on the latest figures.
Dublin has 6,337 cases – considerably the largest of any in the country – and also has the highest number of cases per 10,000 with 48.81.
Two of the smaller counties are next – with Cavan having 45.34 cases per 10,000 and Westmeath 35.97 cases per 10,000.
Wexford has the lowest per 10,000 with 5.08 with Waterford with 8.76 and Roscommon with 9.47.
You can read Steven Miller’s full story here.
Curve flattened?
Chief Medical Officer of the HSE Dr Tony Holohan has said Ireland’s Covid-19 curve has been flattened and that there is no peak expected.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Late Late Show, Dr Holohan said that as a result of public efforts to suppress Covid-19 in communities through increased restrictions, “hundreds of lives” had been saved.
“What was really important for us to do…was suppress the virus in the community,” said Dr Holohan. “We think we’ve flattened that curve so much that there is no peak, that we think we can go along at a low level and reduce it even further.”
“That’s the impact that we’ve had from all of the work that everybody across society has done,” he said.
Read this piece in full on TheJournal.ie here
Worth a Read – Explainer piece on New Zealand’s handling of the crisis
New Zealand expected to start easing its nationwide lockdown next week.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned on Thursday it would be far from a return to normal, but the country is expected to relax some of the strict measures currently in place.
The Pacific country of five million people has been one of the most successful in containing the outbreak, with just over 1,000 known cases and nine deaths.
You can read the Journal piece in full here.
Worth a Read Extra – We need to talk about re-opening the schools
Jennifer O’Connell in the Irish Times always delivers a good read.
Today she explores the re-opening of schools at this time.
“What we are missing most isn’t the economy, but the scaffolding of society,” she writes in today’s paper.
“We miss access to the arts, to nature, to one another. We miss touch. We miss freedom. We need to talk about reopening society first, not as some adjunct to the economy. And in that context, we need to talk about reopening schools.
“Our youngest citizens’ experience of the coronavirus pandemic has been unrelentingly awful.
“They have been locked out of school for five weeks; kept away from grandparents and their friends; banned from some shops; scowled at in the street; wrongly side-eyed as ‘vectors’, when in fact we’re all potential vectors.”
You can read her piece in full here.
LaoisToday Facebook Live quiz
The LaoisToday Facebook Live quiz has proven a big hit with our followers and it has now settled into a twice-weekly routine – every Wednesday and Sunday at 9.30pm.
The format is pretty simple. Two rounds of ten questions – Round 1 is General Knowledge; Round 2 is specific to Laois.
Participants simply answer the questions in the comments section with plenty of banter along the way.
And the rules are simple – no cheating and no abuse of the quiz master!
The next quiz is this Sunday, April 19, at 9.30pm sharp.
SEE ALSO – Coronavirus Daily Noticeboard – Friday, April 17, 2020
