A total of 17 counties saw a rise in coronavirus infections over the last 24 hours as health officials issued a grim warning over the local lockdown in Kildare.
Dublin was once again the hardest-hit county after reporting 34 new cases of Covid-19.
Kildare is next with seven new infections, followed by Laois and Donegal with six each.
Limerick and Wexford also each reported five further cases.
The remaining 30 cases are spread across Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow.
And in a press conference last night, experts dashed hopes in Kildare of an end to its local lockdown which is in place until Sunday week.
NPHET revealed they have also ordered Ireland’s pubs to remain closed for another two weeks at least.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said it was the wrong time to raise the shutters.
“We want pubs to reopen, let’s be very clear about that,” Dr Glynn told the Irish Mirror.
“We want people to be able to go into pubs and socialise, but right now is not the time.
“We’ve seen a deterioration in the parameters we monitor, it has been described as a tipping point, I hope it’s not the tipping point.
“But today is not the day to consider reopening pubs, it would be entirely the wrong message given the current situation.”
And the local lockdown in Kildare will also continue to next week at least.
“Unfortunately, in relation to Kildare while the situation is improving or stabilising, it hasn’t improved or stabilised to the extent that we would need,” Dr Glynn said.
“It still has the highest 14-day incidence in the country. Unfortunately, at this point it is too early to relax the measures.”
NPHET is monitoring several counties with rising 14-Day incidence per 100,000 population including Dublin which has seen 564 cases in the past fortnight.
The 14-day rates per capita in Carlow (69), Limerick (42) and Tipperary (83) are also being watched closely.
Professor Philip Nolan said the R Number of the virus is falling at between 1 and 1.2 but needs to go lower.
In recent weeks the profile of the pandemic has changed. Big clusters such as those in meat plants have been brought under control but there are now hundreds of small outbreaks in families, households and communities.
The Director of the HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Dr John Cuddihy, revealed that there are 392 outbreaks active around the country.
Of those, 252 are linked to gatherings in private houses. Others relate to workplaces, social settings and retail outlets.
He said 26 cases were linked to one outbreak at a pub/restaurant which caused a further 10 cases in another workplace.
Another restaurant cluster led to 19 cases among staff, customers and relatives.
Six cases in one sports club sparked a further 19 among close contacts of those infected.
Dr Cuddihy also identified a pattern where one household is then spreading the disease to another household of close contacts.
There were no new deaths and 93 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday bringing the total to 28,453.
