Today's 1,205 cases is the largest ever recorded in the Republic of Ireland.

1,205 new Covid-19 cases have been confirmed, along with three newly reported deaths. 228 of Thursday's cases are in Dublin, while 173 are in Cork, 123 in Meath, 97 Galway, 63 in Cavan and the remainder spread across the country. There are currently 241 confirmed cases in hospitals across the country (an increase of nine from yesterday), while there are 29 confirmed cases in the ICU. The median age of today's cases is 34 years of age, while the R number is now 1.4 nationally. According to professor Philip Nolan, if trends continue this way, by 31 October, we could be seeing 2,500 new cases notified daily, with over 400 hospitalisations. Nolan added that "the epidemic has accelerated further in the last week". Speaking at a briefing on Thursday evening, CMO Tony Holohan said: "The number of hospitalisations is increasing faster than the exponential growth modelling predicted. That indicates a rapidly deteriorating disease trajectory nationally." Holohan also said that the situation has "significantly" deteriorated over the past week. https://twitter.com/RobOHanrahan/status/1316790438968393728?s=20 Earlier on Thursday, Northern Ireland reported that 763 individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Four deaths were also reported up north within this period.