A further 2,051 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed this evening.
There are currently 323 people in hospital with Covid-19, 56 of which are in ICU.
The latest figures were announced by the National Public Health Emergency Team.
They come as the government faces intense scrutiny from live events organisers after Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan signalled that there would be no major concern for Electric Picnic to go ahead for fully vaccinated people.
However Laois County Council has said it won’t do a u-turn on their decision to cancel Electric Picnic despite Dr Tony Holohan giving the go-ahead for those who are fully vaccinated.
In a statement, Laois County Council have despite Dr Tony Holohan’s comments on Tuesday, “nothing has changed” per HSE advice or Government public health measures.
A spokesman said: “There is no provision in law which enables Laois County Council to revisit that refusal or reconsider that application.”
He said that even if a new application for an event license is made now, the timeline does not allow for the process to facilitate Electric Picnic to go ahead in September.The council refused the festival a licence earlier this month citing public health advice from the HSE.
But festival bosses have called on the council to reverse its decision after Dr Holohan said there would be no “major issue” on public health grounds of such an event taking place for fully vaccinated people.
