Ireland has reported 208 new COVID cases without further deaths; Government will announce the medium-term plan tomorrow

Health officials have confirmed 208 new Covid-19 cases in Ireland. This brings the total number of Covid cases in Ireland to 31,192.

The death toll remains at 1,784 as no new Covid deaths have been confirmed in the country.

Of the confirmed cases today, 98 are men and 110 are women; 62% are under 45 years of age; 33% are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case and 18 cases have been identified as community transmission.

The capital had the highest number of cases registered in Ireland with 108 cases.

Of the remaining 100 cases, 18 are in Louth; 12 in Donegl;  10 in Meath, 9 in Kildare, 8 in Waterford, 7 in Cork, 6 each in Limerick and Wexford.

And the rest 24 cases are located in Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said today that additional restrictions would be needed as cases have been on the rise in the capital for the past two weeks.

“Depending on how you count it, a 10 or 20-fold increase in the incidence of the virus in Dublin in the space of a few weeks, and while that has not yet resulted in a dramatic increase in people in hospitals, ICUs or deaths, the truth is it’s probably going to head that way if we don’t get on top of it,” Varadkar said.

The government will announce its medium term plan for living with Covid-19 tomorrow. It is expected to include some restrictions on household gatherings and other events until April next year.

“There is an opportunity to flatten the curve and we will have to make a decision as a government tomorrow as to what mix of additional restrictions will be required in the capital,” the Tánaiste added.