Health officials have announced 506 new coronavirus cases and one further death this evening.

It takes the death toll in Ireland to 1,817 and the total number of cases to 40,086.

Some 91 of the cases were in Dublin with 76 in Cork, 53 in Donegal and 42 in Meath.

The remaining 244 cases are spread across 21 other counties.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre said 59 of the new cases have been identified as community transmission, while 39% are associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case.

As of 8am this morning, there were 159 COVID-19 patients in Irish hospitals with 25 people in intensive care.

Of the 91,823 tests carried out in the past week, 4.2% came back positive.

Yesterday, the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said he was “really, genuinely worried” about the situation we are facing as a country.

Meanwhile, the chair of the COVID-19 modelling group, Professor Philip Nolan said Ireland has now entered a “phase of exponential growth” – with hospital admissions, intensive care admission and deaths all expected to rise in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, 923 new cases have been recorded in the North in the last 24 hours, alongside one further death.

It brings to 17,110 the total number of cases in Northern Ireland, while the death toll stands at 587.

Earlier, Taoiseach Michael Martin and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed concern about the growing number of cases in the North.

They agreed to monitor the situation closely.