15 new cases confirmed in Offaly

Some 68 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported by midnight on Saturday.

19 cases are located in Kildare, 17 in Dublin, 15 in Offaly, 12 in Laois and 5 in Donegal.

There is now a total of 26,712 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

There have been no new deaths reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre today.

There has now been a total of 1,772 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today;

37 are men / 31 are women

82% are under 45 years of age

41 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case

2 cases have been identified as community transmission

Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; “We continue to see cases linked to the outbreaks in counties where additional public health measures have been introduced. This was expected and we will continue to monitor closely.

“From tomorrow face coverings will be mandatory in retail and other indoor settings like hairdressers, cinemas and museums. We know that most people are already wearing face coverings and we hope to see even greater uptake over the coming days.

“Time and again people have shown their willingness to follow public health guidance in the interest of protecting each other from this disease. Wearing a face covering is just one more way in which people can demonstrate their solidarity with one another as we seek to suppress the spread of COVID-19.”