The Department of Health have confirmed a further three Covid-19 related deaths in the Republic of Ireland today along with 1,066 additional cases.
This brings the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Ireland to 54,476.
In the past two weeks, 14,404 Covid-19 cases have been notified, while the country's national 14-day incidence rate has exceeded 300 for the first time.
It currently stands at 302 cases per 100,000 population.
Among the cases notified today:
- 536 are men / 528 are women
- 67 per cent are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 32 years old
- 244 cases are in Dublin, 104 in Galway, 98 in Cork, 92 in Meath and the remaining 528 cases are spread across all remaining counties
As of 2pm today 313 Covid-19 patients are being treated in hospital, of which 37 are in ICU. There have been 20 additional hospital patients with Covid-19 reported in the last 24 hours.
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “We are now in Level 5 because the disease is at very serious levels in our country and posing a significant risk to public health.
“We all need to stay at home, except for essential work and exceptional circumstances. If you are a confirmed case self isolate at home, if you are a close contact of a confirmed case restrict your movements at home, if you are experiencing symptoms or believe you are a close contact - restrict your movements and contact your GP.”
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Heather Burns said: “The 14-day incidence was at 3 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 4 months ago. Please limit your risk by staying at home and following public health advice.”
Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the Nphet Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said: “The reproduction number is 1.3 -1.4 nationally. Our collective goal now is to suppress transmission of the virus and bring our case numbers to manageable levels. If we work hard together to get the reproduction number to 0.5, we should succeed in reducing cases to below 100 a day in six weeks time.”
The news comes amid controversy over the contact tracing system becoming overwhelmed.
HSE chief Paul Reid has promised it will not happen again after Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said they only heard about the news from a report in The Irish Times.
The issue led to over 2,000 people being asked to conduct their contact tracing themselves.
HSE chief Paul Reid has said he takes responsibility for not informing Government of the situation, who learned of the issue through media reports.
“From my perspective, 70 per cent of the decision was right, the 30 per cent in terms of keeping the politicians, particularly the Minister and the Taoiseach, advised at the quickest pace we were dealing with this issue, was something that didn’t work the way it should," he said.
"I take responsibility for that.”
Earlier today, Mr Reid apologised to the 2,000 people who were asked to forward a text to their own contacts.
“It's an unfortunate situation, I regret it,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
