HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed 1,000 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

The total number of confirmed cases is now 47,427*.

A further three patients diagnosed with Covid-19 have died. There have been 1,841 deaths of patients with the disease in Ireland since the beginning of the pandemic.

Of the cases notified today, analysis by the HPSC shows:

• 478 are men and 520 are women
• 71% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 31 years old
• 254 in Dublin, 102 in Meath, 88 in Cork, 81 in Cavan, 75 in Galway and the remaining 400 cases are spread across 20 counties.

As of 2pm today, 246 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 30 are in ICU. There have been 13 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “Case numbers are continuing to rise.

Right now, we need everyone to cut their social contacts to an absolute minimum. Every time you physically interact with another person, you are providing an opportunity for the virus to spread.

Over 100,000 tests have been completed in the last seven days, with 17,758 in the last 24 hours. There is a test positivity rate of 7% over the last seven days, which compares to an overall positivity rate of 3.7%.

The 14-day case incidence rate per county is as follows:

HPSC HPSC

Level 5 recommendation

It emerged earlier that NPHET has recommended that government move to Level 5 restrictions for six weeks, based on the latest epidemiological evidence. 

Last night, Professor Philip Nolan said that if current trends about how the virus is spreading don’t change, that there will be between 1,800-2,200 cases a day and 400 Covid-19 cases in hospital in just two weeks’ time.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the government would give this “serious advice” by NPHET “good consideration”. 

“It has to be considered properly. And people have to be given clear clarity around it and that’s why we are going to meet tomorrow in the first instance,” Martin said. 

The Taoiseach is currently in Brussels for a meeting of the European Council. 

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of two confirmed cases.