Coronavirus death toll more than DOUBLES in Ireland


Coronavirus death toll more than DOUBLES in Ireland as the total goes from nine to 19 in just one day

  • Ireland has had 1,819 cases of Covid-19 as the pandemic sweeps the globe 
  • Testing centre for the virus established at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin   
  • Naval personnel are working with medical staff to help patients at the site  
  • Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?

The coronavirus death toll has more than doubled in Ireland after the total went from nine to 19 in just one day.

Ten more cases of Covid-19 were reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team on Thursday. 

Today Naval personnel were pictured at St John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin, where a testing centre for the virus has been established. 

Pictured: The testing centre at Sir John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin, where Navy personnel are assisting medical staff at the testing centre 

Ireland has had 1,819 cases of the virus so far as the pandemic sweeps across the globe.

A sporty 28-year-old patient from Kerry revealed earlier this week how the ‘cruel’ disease almost killed him within days of him first feeling sick. 

Micheal Prendergast described having an acute shortness of breath, a sky-high temperature and convulsions which wracked his body as it tried to fight off the disease.

After being placed in quarantine in hospital he said he started contemplating his own mortality, and is sure he would have died without care.

Micheal Prendergast

Micheal Prendergast

Micheal Prendergast, 28, from Kerry in Ireland, said he caught coronavirus two weeks ago while working in London before flying home to Ireland because he had no symptoms

Speaking to the News Talk show in Ireland, he said: ‘I thought [it would be mild] before I got it.

‘But once I was experiencing the sickness with it, it brings every sort of existential question with it

‘”Am I going to live? Have I lived a good life? Did I waste time?” It’s a very emotional time.’

Mr Prendergast explained to Sky News that he likely caught the disease while working in London and a journalist, but had no symptoms for the first few days.

Trying to avoid a lockdown in the UK capital, he caught a flight back to Ireland where he arrived on March 16 and went to visit his mother.

But the following day he woke up with a ‘horrific shortness of breath and a sky-high temperature’, two tell-tale signs of the illness.

The following day his temperature spiked even higher and he began convulsing in bed as his body tried to fight the infection. 

Micheal Prendergast (left)

Micheal Prendergast (right)

Within 48 hours of falling ill Mr Prendergast was rushed to hospital with acute shortness of breath, convulsions and a soaring fever – and at one point was so ill he thought he would die

On March 19 he called an ambulance and was taken to Kerry General Hospital and placed on their coronavirus ward in isolation, where he has spent the last five days.

Mr Prendergast said the only underlying condition he has is mild asthma, which he has under control and has not suffered a bout in years.

He has previously been in hospital for a broken spine, a collapsed lung and pneumonia – one of the side-effects of the virus – but said this disease is worse.

‘It comes in waves,’ he added, ‘so I could feel… I wouldn’t feel great, I would still feel poorly, but I would get a wave that would last four or five hours.

‘That would be the most intense, overwhelming feeling, a temperature spike… it makes you just feel like you’re not far from death.’

While he now feels like he’s through the worst of the disease, he said he is confident that he wouldn’t be alive without access to a hospital bed.

In a stark warning to young people, who are thought to be less vulnerable to the virus, he said: ‘This is just a warning to anyone out there. I see recently people at beaches, at parks, at gyms. 

‘If you don’t get affected as bad as I have, I guarantee that your parents or your aunts and uncles or your grandparents are going to be, and this virus is a killer.’