The Department of Health have confirmed that there were 54 new Coronavirus cases diagnosed in Ireland in the past 24 hours
There are now a total of 223 cases in Ireland, up from 169 yesterday. The news cases include 30 males and 24 females. There were also another seven cases confirmed in Northern Ireland today bring the total there to 52.
This means there are 275 confirmed cases on the island of Ireland.
41 are confirmed to be in the east of the country, 11 are in the south and 2 are located in the north/west of the country.
At the press briefing, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, said early modelling indicates we should expect 78 confirmed cases tomorrow, 109 cases on Wednesday rising to roughly 355 cases by Sunday.
The news comes as Leo Varadkar announced that he expects a 30% daily increase in cases, meaning he can see 15,000 cases happening in Ireland by the end of March, although most will not need treatment. Varadkar said he expects this to go on for "months, not weeks". He also warned that up to 100,000 jobs could be lost in he coming weeks as a result of closures due to the virus.
Also today the European Commission announced their proposal restrict non essential travel to the EU for 30 days.
Abroad, French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered people to stay at home from midday Tuesday except for necessary reasons such as shopping, saying any violations of the stricter rules to battle the coronavirus would be punished.
In the USA, New York has closed all bars, restaurants and theatres, Las Vegas has shut it's casinos and in Los Angeles bars and restaurants have temporarily closed their doors.
