by The Chief Medical Officer has said the National Public Health Emergency Team is gravely concerned as more than 44,000 new cases of Covid-19 were notified over the past two weeks.
However, NPHET said the restrictions imposed since Christmas are beginning to have an effect and urged people to maintain and redouble their efforts to contain the virus.
Yesterday, the Department of Health was notified of ten further coronavirus-related deaths and 6,521 new cases of the disease.
The 14-day incidence is now at 936.4 per 100,000 nationally. There are 23,000 tests being carried out per day on average, the highest level ever, with a 21% positivity rate.
Counties with the highest rates include Monaghan (1,819.6), Louth (1,637.1) and Limerick (1,399.2). The lowest infection spread is in Wicklow (471.1.), Tipperary (487) and Leitrim (505.6).
Dr Tony Holohan said that the presence of the new and more highly transmissible variant of the disease, first discovered in the UK, has contributed to the higher numbers.
NPHET has pointed to two tentative but optimistic signs that offer hope the rapidly growing level of infections in recent weeks might be levelling off.
The first is the proportion of people testing for the virus may have stopped rising, although the positivity is still around 20%.
The second is the number of close contacts of each person testing positive has fallen sharply, from 4.8 at the start of last week to just 3 now.
The chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, Professor Philip Nolan, has warned that these were very thin grounds for optimism and that we still have a long way to go.
Prof Nolan and his team have cut their projection for the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital by mid-January to a maximum of 2,200, which is down from 2,500 projected earlier this week.
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Separately, non-essential construction is to cease this evening until at least the end of the month, as part of restrictions introduced on Wednesday to slow the spread of the third wave.
Essential construction projects that will be exempt from this include health projects specific to Covid-19, housing adaptation grants, repairs critical to maintenance for rail and utility projects and roads.
Other exceptions from closure include social housing projects that are designated as essential sites by local authorities, as well as education facilities deemed as essential by the Department of Education.
Sole traders, such a plumbers, glazers and electricians, will be able to work on an emergency call-out basis to homes and businesses.
There is also be an exemption for certain large construction projects in the exporting and foreign direct investment sector, based on set criteria.
