The chief medical officer has encouraged people to wear face masks outdoors to try and stop the spread of Covid-19.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin says everyone should wear one when they're out — but there are no plans to make it compulsory or introduce fines.
Over the weekend, there were reports of large numbers of people at popular spots like the Dublin/Wicklow Mountains.
Dr Tony Holohan says wearing a mask outdoors is a good idea, he described Mr Martin's recommendation as "good advice".
Eight further Covid-19 related deaths have been confirmed in the Republic of Ireland along with 4,929 additional cases.
Over 150,000 people have now tested positive for Covid-19 in the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
Today's additional cases bring the overall number recorded in the Republic to 152,539. There has been a total of 2,352 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
Of the cases notified today:
- 2,250 are men / 2,641 are women.
- 59 per cent are under 45 years of age.
- The median age is 39 years old.
- 1,513 cases are in Dublin, 695 in Cork, 320 in Limerick, 305 in Wexford, 225 in Galway and the remaining 1,871 cases are spread across all other counties.
As of 2pm today, 1,582 Covid-19 patients are in Irish hospitals, of which 146 are in ICU. 156 additional Covid-19 cases were reported in Irish hospitals in the last 24 hours.
Dr Holohan said: “While we are seeing the first glimmer of hope in respect of our daily case figures and positivity rates, the situation in hospitals and ICUs around the country continues to worsen day on day. We know that hospitalisations occur some weeks after a confirmed case is notified, and mortality after that again. That means we are unfortunately set for a period of time where the situation in our hospitals gets worse before it gets better.”
