The official COVID-19 figures have been significantly amended

The Department of Health has now amended its figures for the numbers of people diagnosed with COVID-19 to include over 1,000 positives from samples sent to a German lab for testing.

Up to now the figures from the German laboratory testing had not been included in the running total of overall cases confirmed in Ireland.

In a press release last night, released following questions by national media, the Department confirmed there were circa 14,000 samples returned from German labs, of which 1,035 were positive.

The Department added: “With the latest German figures included, there are now 8,089 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.”

Separately, it confirmed that the German positives related to “older cases”, though it appears the vast majority of these results were only provided to the HSE in the last few days.

It means that the overall number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is not 7,054 as initially suggested – but 8,089, taking into account the 1,035 positives from the German lab.
Meanwhile, last night, The Health Protection Surveillance Centre confirmed that 25 people diagnosed with COVID-19 in Ireland have died, eleven of whom were females and 14 males.

23 of the deaths located in the east, 2 in the west of the country

There have now been 288 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

A more detailed breakdown of the cases confirmed by midnight, on Wednesday last, of 7,071, which the HSE says includes the German positives available at that point, indicate that there were 152 cases in Westmeath and 26 in Roscommon.

But with another 1,018 cases to be added to that total and then broken down by county, the numbers for individual counties are likely to significantly increase in the coming days.