Dr Tony Holohan has issued a stark message after 1,012 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Ireland.
The latest figures were released by the Department of Health this evening.
Sadly, three more people have died from Covid-19 here.
Dublin was the hardest-hit region in the country with 241 further cases reported, followed by Cork with 112.
While 80 new infections have been reported in Cavan, 72 in Meath and 66 in Galway.
The remaining 441 cases are spread across 21 other counties.
The Department of Health has declined to give a further breakdown of where the remaining infections are located.
And Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has said he is "very worried" by the increase in new infections.
He said: “I am very worried about the numbers we are seeing and how quickly they are deteriorating.
“All of today’s 1,012 cases were notified to the HPSC over a period of 24 hours up to midnight.
“The 14-day incidence rate has increased from 108 per 100,000 last Sunday to 150 per 100,000 today, which represents a 39% increase.
“All of the important indicators of the disease are deteriorating. For example, there has been a consistent increase in test positivity over the past week. The test positivity rate up to midnight Friday 9 October was 6.2%, which has more than doubled in less than a fortnight.
“Case numbers are growing across all age groups and throughout the country.”
While Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn added: “In the past 24 hours, there have been 35 new admissions of laboratory confirmed cases to hospital and 4 new admissions to ICU. There are now 199 people in hospital and 31 in ICU.
"Every age group, location and household needs to act now, limit your contacts and stop the disease in its tracks.”
