A Dublin hospital is now the hardest-hit hospital in the country with coronavirus after a surge in cases, statistics have revealed.
The Mater is the hospital with the most Covid-19 patients on site, with 118 confirmed cases as of 8pm on Sunday, according to data shared by RTE News.
But in the same figures released on April 16, Beaumont was by far the hardest-hit hospital in the country with 137 confirmed cases, compared to the Mater in second on 85.
However that trend has been almost completely reversed, with the Mater now reporting more cases than any other.
All of the top five hardest-hit hospitals are in the capital, with St James's in second with 88 current cases, followed by Beaumont on 82, Tallaght on 81.
Connolly and St Vincent's are next on 58 and 54 respectively.
Outside of Dublin, the hospital with the most cases is Mayo, with 34, followed by Limerick on 31 and Cork University Hospital on 25.
However the highest number of patients in critical care units is in St James's with 17, followed by the Mater on 12.
The hospital outside of the capital with the most patients in critical care is Drogheda, with 8 confirmed cases in the unit as of 8pm on Sunday.
It comes after health officials revealed last night that coronavirus has claimed 26 more lives in the Republic of Ireland.
And 701 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed by the Department of Health.
The death toll here now stands at 1,087. There is now a total of 19,262 confirmed cases of the infection in Ireland.
HSE boss Paul Reid also admitted yesterday that the killer bug could be in Ireland until 2021.
As plans to dramatically increase testing to 100,000 people a week are rolled out, Covid-19 will be with us for “a lot longer than we were expecting”, Paul Reid warned.
The virus could be with us “well into 2020 and even 2021,” he said.
