THERE have now been over 200,000 cases of coronavirus confirmed in the Republic of Ireland since the outbreak of the pandemic.
According to figures released by the Department of Health, a further 1,318 people were diagnosed with the virus on Thursday, bringing the nation's overall total to 200,744.
Ireland's very first case of coronavirus was identified on February 29, 2020, and though case numbers increased fairly rapidly over the next few weeks, it took until January 4, 2021 for the country to reach 100,000 cases.
Startlingly, it's then only taken a month for that figure to double to 200,000.
The unfortunate milestone was hit just as a system of mandatory quarantine is officially introduced.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly signed off on the regulations last night, and are now in full effect.
Under the latest set of rules, any passengers entering Ireland - no matter what country they've arrived from - must quarantines themselves for 14 days at the address they note down on their Passenger Locator Form.
Non-compliance with this rule will now result in strict penalties which could include a fine of up to €2,500, six months in prison, or even both.
Of the 1,318 new cases confirmed yesterday:
- 622 are men / 688 are women
- 58% are under the age of 45
- 40-years-old is the average age of each case
- 428 cases were located in Dublin, 122 in Cork, 93 in Galway, 78 in Kildare, 77 in Limerick and the remaining 520 cases are spread across all other counties
Ireland's death toll from Covid-19 also rose to 3,586 after a further 75 fatalities were recorded on Thursday.
