There have been eight further deaths and 1,276 new cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
However the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) says of the eight deaths one of these happened in June, two in September and five in October.
There has been a total of 1,849 COVID-19 related deaths and 48,678 confirmed cases here.
Of the cases notified on Saturday:
- 644 are men / 631 are women
- 69% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 31 years old
Some 278 cases are in Dublin, 149 in Cork, 108 in Meath, 107 Galway and 80 are in Wexford.
The remaining 554 cases are spread across 21 counties.
As of 2.00pm on Saturday, 260 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalised - 30 of which are in ICUs.
There have been 12 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
NPHET has also released data on the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in the last 14 days.
Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 14 October 2020) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population). Source: NPHETThere have also been 103,567 tests completed in the last seven days, with a positive rate of 7.3%.
It comes as Government ministers are meeting to discuss whether or not to accept a recommendation to move to level five restrictions.
It is the second time in recent weeks that health officials have recommended a strict lockdown, amid continuing increases in coronavirus cases and associated hospitalisations.
Other options on the table include moving the entire country up to level four, or leaving the current level three restrictions unchanged and seeing how they play out over the next few days.
Government sources say it is unlikely a full Cabinet meeting will be called tonight.
This puts question marks over the timeline of when a decision will be made.
