There have been seven new deaths and 777 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed in the State this evening.
Of the cases notified today, 182 are located in Dublin, 81 in Galway, 44 in Wexford, 42 in Meath, 41 in Cork and the remaining 387 cases are spread across 21 remaining counties.
There were 319 patients hospitalised with the virus as of this afternoon, with 37 in intensive care. 24 additional hospitalisations were seen in the past 24 hours.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “15,000 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 over the last 14 days.
I appeal to everyone to behave as though you are a close contact. Stay at home, other than for essential reasons.
"It is vital for everyone with a recent diagnosis to self-isolate for the full 10 days to protect the people they live with, the people they love and people in their communities from this highly infectious disease," he said.
Dr Holohan said that self-isolating means staying at home, ideally in a room alone and away from other members of the household as much as possible.
He added that close contacts of a confirmed case must restrict their movements for 14 days, staying at home while not attending work or school.
“I appeal to everyone to behave as though you are a close contact. Stay at home, other than for essential reasons," Dr Holohan said.
"Now is the time to use our reserves of energy and dig deep in our efforts to follow the public health advice – keep your distance, wash your hands and wear a face covering. Play your part to break the chains of transmission across families, neighbours and communities.”
Test and trace
The figures come as one of the main labs processing the country’s Covid-19 tests has said it will be unable to operate over the next two weekends due to “unavoidable staff shortages.”
It also emerged this week that 2,500 people positive for Covid-19 were asked to carry out their own contact tracing as the tracing system was overwhelmed.
However, head of the National Virus Reference Laboratory Dr Cillian de Gascun said that the staff shortages this weekend and next will "have no impact" on Covid-19 testing capacity.
People have been urged to act as if they were close contacts of the virus as the risk of being exposed to Covid-19 is now 100 times greater than it was four months ago, the Department of Health has warned.
Speaking yesterday, deputy chief medical officer Dr Heather Burns said: “The 14-day incidence was at three per 100,000 at the end of June, today it is 302 per 100,000 population.
“The risk of you being exposed to Covid-19 is now 100 times greater than it was four months ago,” she said.
There were five further deaths and an additional 1,252 new cases of the virus confirmed on the island of Ireland today in the North.
The weekly Covid-19 death toll in Northern Ireland has nearly quadrupled.
