The latest Covid figures have been released.
574 new Covid cases have been confirmed, as well as 56 deaths.
31 of these deaths occurred in February, 13 occurred in January, three were in December or earlier while a further nine are under investigation.
One of the deaths confirmed this evening was a teenager aged 16.
There has now been a total of 4,237 Covid-related deaths in the Republic of Ireland.
175 of today's cases are in Dublin, 57 are in Limerick, 43 are in Kildare, 37 are in Galway, 35 are in Meath and the remaining 227 cases are spread across 18 other counties.
As of 8am today, 652 Covid patients are hospitalised across the country, of which 137 are in ICU. 35 additional hospitalisations occurred in the past 24 hours.
Speaking on Wednesday, Ronan Glynn said: "We continue to see good progress, but this needs to be sustained. It is vital that we get our children back to school over the coming weeks.
"A key part of making this a success will be our continued collective buy-in to the public health measures that are tried and tested. Stay at home, work from home where possible.
"Given the increased transmissibility of the virus now, we must continue to limit our social contacts and do all we can to starve this disease of opportunities to spread."
Earlier on Wednesday, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland reported that a further 260 individuals have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
Sadly, two further deaths have been reported up north.
