The latest Covid figures have been released.
40 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed, with one further death also recorded.
Wednesday night’s figures mean that there has been 1,774 Covid-related deaths in Ireland, while there has been a total of 26,838 confirmed cases since the outbreak of the virus.
21 of today’s cases were found in men, while 19 were in women.
75% of the cases were in people under 45 years of age.
19 cases are associated with outbreaks, or close contacts of a confirmed case, with 13 cases from community transmission.
12 cases were found in Dublin, 11 in Kildare, seven in Offaly, and the remainder spread across Clare, Donegal, Limerick, Meath, Roscommon, Tipperary and Wicklow.
There are currently 13 Covid cases in Irish hospitals, with six people in ICU.
Acting CMO Ronan Glynn said: “Although today’s number is positive relative to what we saw last weekend, we remain concerned about both the number of cases that are being reported and their distribution across the country.
“The five day average for reported cases nationally is now at 75 per day. Even when we exclude Kildare, Laois and Offaly from this, it remains significantly elevated for the rest of the country at 31 per day.
“It is worth recalling that in late June, the five day average for cases reported was less than 10. In light of this, I ask people to continue to hold firm and continue to closely follow public health advice.”
70% of cases that have been reported over the past 14 days are cluster-related, Wednesday night’s press briefing revealed.
Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, no new Covid-19 deaths were recorded, while another 29 people tested positive for Covid.
Earlier on Wednesday, news emerged that Ireland may abandon the current phases approach to reopening society and business in favour of a colour-coded response to Covid-19 restrictions.
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