Three more Covid-19 deaths on-Island

David Ashford makes announcement at press briefing

There have been three further deaths from Covid-19 on the Isle of Man.

Speaking at the daily government press conference today, Health Minister David Ashford said all three were in the community, and following questions from the media, he also confirmed all three were from Abbotswood Nursing Home in the south of the Island:

That brings the Island's total to nine.

Mr Ashford sent his condolences to the families of those who have died.

The minister has also confirmed that the Island's dedicated testing centre is now fully operational, after it 'came online' earlier today, which Mr Ashford hailed as 'great news'.

That uses a real-time PCR analyser, which is the same equipment as used in the UK.

It takes six hours to process results, he says, whilst getting results from the UK lab took 72 hours.

The first batch of Manx samples were submitted at 8:30 this morning.

The DHSC minister was joined by Hospital Matron Dr Lyz Howard, who repeated the advice on hand washing and social distancing, against an 'indiscriminate disease'.

Since the last update at 10am, there has been one further confirmed positive test for coronavirus on the Isle of Man.

That means today, we have seen two more Covid-19 cases confirmed from 47 completed tests.

The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 300.

In total, 276 patients have been instructed to self-isolate and 15 are being treated at the hospital.

The contact tracing process is already underway led by Public Health.

There have been 2,417 concluded tests, 92 people are awaiting results and 70 people are awaiting tests.

Two-hundred individuals are 'presumed recovered'.

There have been four deaths in hospital and five in the community caused by coronavirus in the Isle of Man.