It's Saturday 29 February 2020 and the RTÉ Nine News announces Ireland has its first case of Covid-19.Less than two weeks later and the first Covid death here is confirmed.Fast forward.
It's now 110 days since that first death was announced. During that time, we have all become familiar with the nightly briefings by the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan delivering the latest number of deaths and new cases.The total number of deaths currently stands at 1,734 and the number of confirmed cases is more than 25,400.
A patient arrives at the hospital's Emergency Department Significant numbers in any language. For many though that is all they are, numbers, statistics in news bulletins on our television screens.