The Chief Medical Officer expressed further fears that Irelands progress in curbing the spread of Covid-19 are being hindered in recent days.
The country is now well over half way through Level Five restrictions which were implemented in the middle of October in a bid to tackle a surge in coronavirus cases here.
It is hoped that the restrictions will be eased by December 1 ahead of Christmas with the aim of reaching a point where around 100 cases per day are being confirmed.
However Dr Tony Holohan yesterday said that he was "increasingly concerned" after it emerged that the average number of cases being confirmed Ireland had increased rapidly in just one week.
He said: “I am increasingly concerned that the positive trends we had seen recently have not been maintained.
“The 5-day moving average of daily cases has increased from an average of 350 cases on the 11 November to 424 today.
“We have two weeks to continue in our efforts to drive down community transmission of this disease as much as possible. The lower the incidence the more flexibility the country will have in easing measures.”
On Tuesday a further 366 coronavirus cases were confirmed.
Meanwhile sadly another 11 Covid-19 related deaths were announced.
As of 2pm yesterday 272 patients are in Irish hospitals with Covid, of which 34 are in ICU.
This marked an increase of 14 additional hospitalisations in 24 hours.
