Health officials announced this evening that 456 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Ireland.
This is a big jump from recent days, which had seen the number of new infections stay relatively low.
However the Department of Health has explained that many of these cases were in fact delayed due to a "technical issue".
But they stressed that this problem had no impact on contact tracing.
A spokesman said: "A technical issue that delayed uploading of laboratory results to the HPSC has been resolved.
"It led to a reduced number of cases reported in recent days. The reporting is reflected in a higher number of cases today.
"There has been no impact on the management of cases or the timeliness of contact tracing.
"Day on day variations such as these are taken into account in all epidemiological analyses."
Today's figures showed that Dublin was once again the hardest-hit region with 197 new cases, followed by Donegal with 37 and Limerick with 33.
While 21 new cases were reported in Louth, 20 in Kilkenny and the remaining 148 cases are spread across 21 other counties.
The latest figures were released by the Department of Health this evening.
Of the cases notified today:
- 219 are men / 235 are women
- 59% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 39 years old
