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A third death from Covid-19 has been reported in Ireland.

The number of confirmed cases has risen by 191, bringing the total to 557, according to the Department of Health.

There has been an increase in coronavirus testing after the National Public Health Emergency Team changed the threshold for testing last Friday.

Dr Holohan said he wanted to get the message across of the risk the younger cohort of people represent to the older cohort and stressed the importance of social distancing and acting in accordance with public health advice.

He said Monaghan is now the only county that hasn't seen a case of the virus.

The death toll in Italy from coronavirus has risen by 427 to 3,405, overtaking the Chinese death toll.

The figure represents the biggest single-day increase in the country since the outbreak began last month.

China has officially reported 3,245 deaths since registering the first infection at the end of last year.

Northern Ireland's Health Minister Robin Swann has said: "The scale of the surge is of biblical proportions" in relation to Covid-19.

"Normal business is a thing of the past. Its a high price but a price that we have to pay.

Mr Swann said in the worst case scenario 9,000 people would die in Northern Ireland and that is why measures to reduce that are so important.

The Minister for Social Protection has acknowledged that as many as 400,000 people could lose their jobs here as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Regina Doherty said that last week the first industry her department had looked at was hospitality, where 140,000 are employed.

But she said a further 54,000 people work in accommodation and 200,000 in retail and these are just the obvious industries that will be affected.

The minister said that every single day there is another industry she did not think was going to be affected a day earlier.

The country's largest trade union, SIPTU, has called for an extensive wage subsidy scheme to keep employees in work during the Covid-19 emergency.

In a letter to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, SIPTU General Secretary Joe Cunningham also called for an immediate increase in Jobseeker's Benefit and the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Support from €203 to €305 to match the rate of sick pay for coronavirus-related illness.

Mr Cunningham also demanded a three-month moratorium on payments, rents and utility bills, and urged the Government to assemble employer and worker representatives to agree a temporary national emergency programme to protect jobs and incomes across the economy.