There have 13 additional deaths related to COVID-19 and 456 new confirmed cases reported on Saturday.
However, a technical issue delayed uploading laboratory results to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), which led to a reduced number of cases reported in recent days.
This issue has since been resolved.
The Department of Health says the reporting is reflected in a higher number of cases for Saturday.
"There has been no impact on the management of cases or the timeliness of contact tracing", it says.
While day-on-day variations, such as these, are taken into account in all epidemiological analyses.
There has now been a total of 2,099 coronavirus-related deaths and 73,948 confirmed cases in Ireland.
This total includes the reclassification of one probable case to 'confirmed'.
Of the cases notified on Saturday:
- 219 are men / 235 are women
- 59% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 39-years-old
Some 197 cases are in Dublin, 37 in Donegal, 33 in Limerick, 21 in Louth and 20 in Kilkenny.
The remaining 148 cases are spread across 21 other counties.
As of 2.00pm, 231 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised - of which 28 are in ICU.
There have been five additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
14-day incidence rate
Meanwhile Donegal remains the county with the highest 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population.
It has a rate of 219.9, while the national average stands at 80.9.
Louth (160.6), Kilkenny (159.2), Limerick (147.8) and Monaghan (122.2) make up the top five.
Leitrim is the county with the lowest incidence rate, at just 12.5 - while Wexford stands at 20.
Figures also show that Ireland's current seven day incidence rate per 100,000 population is 42.9.
Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 04 December 2020) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population). Source: Department of Health
