The country recorded its highest daily increase in Covid-19 deaths yesterday, with 43 more patients dying. 4 of those deaths were in the west of the country

It brings the death toll to 486, while there are now over 13,200 confirmed cases.

In Mayo the number of confirmed cases now stand at 249, in Galway its 260, in Sligo 66, Roscommon 57

However, the encouraging development is that new modelling suggests Covid-19 has reached a plateau here, and the virus has been suppressed.

However, there's a warning relaxing restrictions on travel and work after May 5th could see the infection begin to grow again.

The HSE will lay out its plans today on the measures it is taking to counter the spread of the coronavirus in nursing homes and long-stay residential settings.

More than 300 of the 486 deaths from Covid-19 in this country so far, have occurred in such community settings.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said all efforts now need to be on focused on extinguishing the disease in these settings. 

There have been outbreaks in 254 community settings including clusters in 163 nursing homes.

According to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, a Covid-19 cluster is two or more cases in a setting within a 72-hour period.