COVID-19: No deaths, 518 new cases confirmed in Ireland

A further 518 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Ireland. This brings the total number of COVID cases to 38,549.

The health department has not reported any new deaths related to the virus. The confirmed death rate in the country is 1,810.

Of the new cases, 134 are in Dublin, 34 in Donegal, 53 in Cork, 49 in Limerick, 34 in Donegal, 32 in Meath and the remaining 216 cases are spread across 20 counties.

Community transmission was identified in 78 of the new cases, while 30% were associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case.

68% of today’s cases are in people under 45 years of age. 252 of the cases reported were in men and 266 were in women.

There have been significant and serious incidents of epidemics nationwide, the chief medical officer Dr. Tony Holohan said.

“It is vital that we do everything in our power now to arrest the current trajectory nationally and very substantially suppress the virus back down to a low level of transmission in advance of the winter months,” he said.

The Government is expected this evening to declare that the entire country is entering Level 3 of the Covid-19 restrictions.