Irish PM to work for health service during coronavirus crisis

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has rejoined the medical register to help the health service during the coronavirus crisis, a government spokesman said Sunday.

Dr Varadkar "has offered his services to the Health Service Executive for one session a week in areas that are within his scope of practice", a government spokesman said in a statement.

The Irish Times reported Varadkar -- who graduated with a medical degree from Dublin's Trinity University in 2003 -- is to work assessing patients over the phone.

The son of a doctor and nurse, Varadkar's partner and his two sisters are also practicing healthworkers.

"Many of his family and friends are working in the health service," the spokesman explained. "He wanted to help out even in a small way." As COVID-19 took hold in Ireland last month the HSE made a call for qualified healthcare workers not currently working in the sector to return.

Over 60,000 responded to the recruitment drive, which included a request for medically skilled and general volunteers to aid the health service.

According to the most recent department of health figures released Sunday there have been 158 coronavirus-related deaths in Ireland. There have been a total of 4,994 confirmed cases across the Republic, the department said.