HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE this evening confirmed there are 208 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

No further patients diagnosed with the disease have died. There have been 1,784 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland to date.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 31,192 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today;

• 98 are men / 110 are women;
• 62% are under 45 years of age;
• 33% are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case;
• 18 cases have been identified as community transmission;
• 108 in Dublin, 18 in Louth, 12 in Donegal, 10 in Meath, 9 in Kildare, 8 in Waterford, 7 in Cork, 6 in Limerick, 6 in Wexford;
• The remaining 24 cases are located in Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow.

The government is due to publish its medium term plan for living with Covid-19 tomorrow. It is expected this will include some restrictions on household gatherings and other events until at least April next year. 

Earlier today Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said it is likely Dublin will need additional restrictions compared to the rest of the country with rising numbers in the capital over the last two weeks.

“Depending on how you count it, a 10 or 20-fold increase in the incidence of the virus in Dublin in the space of a few weeks, and while that has not yet resulted in a dramatic increase in people in hospitals, ICUs or deaths, the truth is it’s probably going to head that way if we don’t get on top of it,” he said.

“We’ve watched it happening in Madrid and we don’t want to go there. There is an opportunity to flatten the curve and we will have to make a decision as a government tomorrow as to what mix of additional restrictions will be required in the capital.”