There have been 93 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
While latest figures show no further deaths from the virus.
There are now a total of 28,453 cases here and 1,777 deaths.
This includes the denotification of three confirmed cases.
There are 29 confirmed cases in hospital, with five in critical care.
Of the cases notified on Thursday:
- 52 are men / 41 are women
- 70% are under 45 years of age
- 73 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
- 12 cases have been identified as community transmission
There were 34 cases in Dublin, seven in Kildare, six in Donegal, six in Laois, five in Limerick and five in Wexford.
The remaining 30 cases are in Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Louth, Meath. Monaghan, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow.
Professor Philip Nolan, chair of NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said the 14 day cumulative incidence was as low as three per 100,000 population in June.
But this is now 10-times that level - with the 14 day cumulative incidence being 33 per 100,000 on Wednesday.
He also warned that hospital admissions are climbing again.
"That was as low as nine or 10 some weeks back... the average yesterday over the preceding five days was 24 people in hospital and three admissions per day.
"As of today there are 29 people in hospital and five admission in the last 24 hours."
"Fortunately the number of people admitted to intensive care and in intensive care remains low, at an average of six in intensive care over the last five days, and about one admission every five days".
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn speaks at a press briefing at Government Buildings. Picture by: Julien Behal / RollingNews.ieDr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer said: "We continue to see a slow growth of COVID-19 in Ireland.
"The most effective action we can take to reduce the transmission rate of this virus is to reduce our number of close contacts.
"If we do this and keep practicing the other safe behaviours by continuing to physical distance, avoid crowds, wash our hands, cover our coughs and sneezes, wear a face mask where appropriate and download the COVID Tracker app, we have a real chance of slowing the spread of the virus to where we want it to be."
Professor Nolan added: "The R-number is now between 1 and 1.2.
"While this is an improvement on what we have seen recently, it is still not where we want to be.
"We are still seeing growing transmission of the disease and we need to bring the R-number back below one if we are to effectively slow the spread of COVID-19 and suppress its transmission."
Dr John Cuddihy, director of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) said: "We are identifying outbreaks in a number of different settings such as private homes, workplaces and social settings.
"Congregated settings are ideal environments for this disease to spread between people.
"We all must avoid such congregations if we are going to break the chains of transmission of the virus."
