Due to an IT problem, this is “almost certainly” an underreporting of around 100 cases.
Six additional Covid-19 deaths have been recorded, as well as 183 new cases.
There has now been a total of 2,080 Covid-related deaths in Ireland, while 73,228 people have tested positive for the virus.
56 of today’s cases are in Dublin, while 26 are in Donegal, 13 are in Limerick, 11 are in Kilkenny, 11 are in Monaghan and the remaining 66 are spread across 15 counties.
Ronan Glynn did state that due to an IT problem, this may be an underreporting of around 100 cases.
As of 2pm on Thursday afternoon, there are 239 Covid patients in hospitals across the country. 32 of these patients are in the ICU.
This figure is coming down, and coming down “very slowly”, according to Philip Nolan.
He added that we have seen “huge improvements” since the end of October, though NPHET did hope for the numbers to be lower.
It is not expected that numbers drop any more over the next week or so, Nolan said.
He warned that if the R number goes to over 2 at Christmas, then Ireland could see between 800-1200 daily cases in January.
The Republic of Ireland’s 14-day incidence rate is now 79.7 per 100 thousand people.
Earlier on Thursday, the Northern Ireland Department of Health reported that a further 456 individuals have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
Sadly, a further 11 deaths have also been reported up north. However, three of these deaths are outside the reporting period.
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