There have been 50 more confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Ireland.
There is now a total of 26,303 confirmed cases of COVID-19 here.
However no new deaths were reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) on Wednesday.
There has now been a total of 1,763 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
Of the cases notified on Wednesday:
- 31 are men / 19 are women
- 81% are under 45 years of age
- 42 are associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
- Four cases have been identified as community transmission
Eleven of the cases are located in Wexford, 10 in Kildare, six in Dublin, five in Donegal, and 18 are spread across nine other counties.
These are Carlow, Cork, Limerick, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Sligo, Tipperary and Wicklow.
The HSE says it is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.
Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, said: "I know the decision yesterday not to move to phase four will have been disappointing for many.
"However, NPHET's priority must be to control the spread of this virus in our communities and to protect the progress that we have achieved to date.
"COVID-19 is an extremely contagious virus and we have seen a significant increase in its spread across multiple counties over recent days. We are monitoring this very closely.
"Our focus over the coming weeks will be on continuing every effort to slow the spread of the virus so that our schools can re-open, our healthcare services resume, and our nursing homes are protected.
“I would also like to emphasise again the importance of continuing to practice safe behaviours such as physical distancing, washing our hands regularly, wearing a face covering where appropriate, avoiding crowds and downloading the COVID-19 Tracker app.
"Doing these things makes a real difference when it comes to controlling the spread of this virus."
It comes as a new Oireachtas report has said testing should be mandatory for people identified as contacts of confirmed cases.
The interim report by the Special Dáil Committee on COVID-19 Response has found that many people are not attending for testing, after being identified as contacts of confirmed cases.
The committee has called on the State to respond "more vigorously" to ensure that being tested in such circumstances is "understood to be a mandatory public health responsibility".
It also says the current testing and tracing system will face 'severe stress tests' in the coming months.
