The Chief Medical Officer says he is not concerned about the breakdown in the contact tracing system.
The HSE asked 2,500 thousand people who tested positive to do their own contact tracing after the system became overwhelmed last weekend.
A further 1,066 cases were confirmed last night, along with three additional deaths.
The national 14-day incidence rate is now 302 cases per 100,000 people.
Dr Tony Holohan says we all need to act as though we are close contacts.
"The face that our contact tracing system had a challenge in identifying each individual contact arising from each individual case doesn't prevent you, as an individual, to behave responsibly and listen to what we are saying.
"Stay at home, other than for essential purposes," Dr Holohan added.
This comes as an outbreak in a nursing home was confirmed yesterday, with 25 out of the 27 residents at Nightingale Nursing home in Ahascragh testing positive for the virus.
The nursing home also face significant staff shortages due to a number of nurses and healthcare assistants also contracting the virus.
Nursing Homes Ireland chief executive, Tadhg Daly says nursing homes are now more vulnerable due to a rise in community transmission.
"Clearly when Covid was supressed in the community it had an impact of nursing homes and now what we see is when transmission is rising, and rising rapidly in the community, it's having a very direct impact on nursing homes- staffing clearing being the biggest issue.
"We would again appeal to the HSE to work closely with our members to ensure that we can continue to provide a high quality of care."
