HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE reported 1,718 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

A further 13 patients with the illness have also died in the past 24 hours, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

It brings to 2,226 the number of deaths from Covid-19 in Ireland to date. A total of 90,157 cases have now been confirmed since the beginning of the pandemic.

The cases are spread across the country, with 358 recorded in Dublin, and the median age of new cases is 34.

A total of 445 people are in hospitalised with Covid-19 in Ireland, and the number in intensive care has risen to 37.

In a statement this evening, the chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said:

Ireland is no longer in a containment phase and is once again in a mitigation phase. Given the current levels of transmission in the community, every individual should consider themselves potentially infectious.

It is essential that we all limit our contacts to our own household now, restrict our movements and do not give COVID-19 any further opportunities to spread.

Everyone needs to stay at home other than for essential work or care. This is not the time to be visiting other houses.

Chair of NPHET’s Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Professor Philip Nolan said the R-number is now estimated to bet between 1.6 to 1.8, a growth rate of between 7 and 10%.

“We must take action immediately to prevent an almost unimaginable scenario, where case numbers in 7 to 10 days time are twice what they are today, he said.

“Stay home.”

Additional reporting by Nicky Ryan.