936 new cases (+5.6%)
17,607 total cases

25 new deaths, bringing the total to 794

(28 new, less 3 deaths denotified).

I'm not worried about the jump in new cases. I'll explain.

1/ https://twitter.com/higginsdavidw/status/1253021827988930564

Ireland finally cleared its backlog of symptomatic cases last weekend.

People who have symptoms are, and always should be, the #1 priority for testing.

Now our attention is turning to find asymptomatic cases (no symptoms).

2/ https://twitter.com/higginsdavidw/status/1251821083201875969

Nursing homes are, rightly, the first port of call.

Many elderly people don't present with the same symptoms as the rest of us (fever + cough).

Staff have been dealing with COVID-19 patients but haven't been tested because they don't have symptoms

3/

That we can now test symptomatic AND asymptomatic people is a rare feat among European peers.

Up in Northern Ireland, you might not even get tested if you have symptoms!

4/

So what about 936 new cases - sounds alarming right?

The number is big, but I would much rather we discover 900 asymptomatic cases in a day than 300 symptomatic ones (whose condition may worsen).

5/

What the new cases prove is that COVID-19 is *much* more infectious than previously thought.

So many other countries are finding the same.

In Iceland, ~half of their cases are asymptomatic.

Same for the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

6/

And some epidemiologists believe that for each new cases, there could be 50-85 that go undetected!

7/ https://www.mercurynews.com/coronavirus-2-5-to-4-2-of-santa-clara-county-residents-infected-stanford-estimates

So remember this when you see 936 new cases.

Ambulances are now whizzing around the country testing *everyone* in nursing homes.

It's the next phase in our testing programme.

It's overwhelmingly finding people who don't even know they have it!

8/8

Oh dear, so busy writing a thread I forgot the all important dashboard!!

Here it is

1A /