The Chief Medical Officer has issued a word of warning to the public after another jump in coronavirus cases this evening.
Ireland saw another 482 cases on Friday evening while sadly seven more Covid-19 related deaths were announced.
On Thursday 395 cases were also confirmed in what was another jump compared to the dwindling numbers in recent days.
While health chiefs earlier said they were confident the recent jump would not affect the 14 day incidence rate in Ireland, CMO Dr Tony Holohan is urging caution following the rise in cases this evening.
Dr Holohan said: “The increase in case numbers of COVID-19 today is an important reminder of the unpredictable nature of this highly infectious disease.
"The hard work undertaken by all of us over the last three weeks is to be commended, but we must not allow our success to date let us drop our guard against the spread of this disease.
“We need to hold firm to the public health advice: keep 2m distance, wash our hands, wear face coverings where appropriate and limit ourselves to essential contacts from our own household.
"If we can keep up high levels of compliance, we can get to where we need to be on the 1 st December.”
Of tonight's cases 128 were in Dublin, 45 in Cork, 43 in Waterford, 24 in Donegal, 24 in Meath, 36 in Limerick and the remaining 182 cases are spread across 20 other counties.
As of 2pm 258 patients are in hospital with Covid-19, of which 35 are in ICU- 12 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
