There have been 591 new case of coronavirus announced this evening alongside three further deaths.

It takes the death toll in Ireland 1,933 and the national total number of cases to 64,046.

120 of the new cases are in Dublin, while 75 are in Donegal, 50 are in Cork, 46 are in Kerry and 44 are in Limerick.

The remaining cases are spread across 20 other counties.

The 14-day rate of the virus in Ireland is now 202.1 cases per 100,000 people – down from 212.7 yesterday.

Donegal now has the highest rate in the country at 300.3, with Cavan down in second at 294.1, Meath at 291.7 and Sligo at 256.4.

"Second surge"

The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said Ireland is one of two European countries that appears to be driving the virus back.

“A second surge is taking place across Europe,” he said. “Ireland and Finland are the only European countries in the EU where reductions in 14-day incidence have been observed. All other countries are increasing.

“Level 5 efforts over the last two weeks have succeeded in further reducing community transmission and disease incidence in Ireland; however, now is not the time to be complacent.

“We must keep driving down this disease- we must keep going.

Young people

He said the 19 to 24-year-old age group has achieved a “dramatic reduction” in incidence over the past two weeks.

“We all need to recognise the efforts of our young people and I thank them,” he said.

As of this afternoon, there were 302 COVID-19 patients in Irish hospitals, down eight form yesterday.

There are 38 patients in intensive care, down from 41 yesterday.

Reproductive

The Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Philip Nolan said the reproductive number of the virus is now between 0.7 - 0.9.

“This is a testament to our collective effort to stop the spread of the virus and it is very good news,” he said.

“We may be doing better now but it is conditional on whether we keep it up.

“If we continue to use this time to drive the infection right down, we will be in a good position in four weeks’ time.”

Of the 85,166 tests carried out in the past week, 4.4% have come back positive.