There was very good news news this evening as Dr Tony Holohan confirmed there were no deaths from coronavirus in this country over the past 24 hours.
There were 59 new cases reported.
Ireland's first coronavirus death came on March 11 in Naas. The disease has worked its way through society over the past 74 days, but today we have reached a real milestone in our effort to repel covid-19. We have had a 24-hour period without a fatality linked directly to the disease.
HSE’s latest figures largely unchanged for both total #covid19ireland cases in hospitals, and numbers in ICU.
Dr Tony Holohan says there has been only one new admission in the last day. pic.twitter.com/6EdNS9VE1x— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) May 25, 2020
Of course, Ireland still has a very long way to go before it can fully reopen society. But this a very good day in our efforts to repel the disease.
Tangentially, the news came just minutes after Dominic Cummings finished his wishy-washy press conference from Downing Street where he tried to explain his trips to Durham despite his government's own regulations on social distancing. In Ireland, society on the whole bought into the demands made on it by the HSE and the government. In the UK, the people making the rules were finding loopholes in order to skirt their regulations.
Ireland's battle against coronavirus is hardly won, but there is plenty of reason to be optimistic that we can return to our former ways of living. As for the UK however, one can only be fearful.