More than 1,000 cases of COVID 19 have been confirmed in the past day.
1,095 cases in total have been confirmed by the National Public Health Emergency Team, with at least one case in every county across Ireland.
246 of these have been in Dublin, 185 in Meath,128 in Cavan, 118 in Cork, 63 in Kildare and the remaining 342 cases are spread across all remaining counties.
Five further people have sadly lost their life in the virus, taking to 1,835 the running total of Coronavirus-related deaths in the country.
There is now a total of 45,243 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “People must now make choices. Stop meeting up in groups, stop socialising, stop organising play dates, parties and other social activities.
"People must recognise that the disease is a direct threat to themselves and their families. Now is the time for each of us to act.”
NPHET have announced the latest figures, as three counties could go into Level 4 restrictions later this evening.
Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan are all likely to face further restrictions - but there may be a reprieve for Louth and Leitrim where the case numbers are lower.
However Ministers will be looking to bring the border into line with the 4 week circuit breaker in Northern Ireland.
That does pose some problems - as their lockdown is actually closer to level 3 here than level 4.
There have been 1,217 new Covid-19 cases in the North in the last 24 hours, the region's Department of Health announced earlier today
It is the largest daily rise in cases in Northern Ireland since an extended testing regime was introduced.
There were also a further four deaths reported on Wednesday, taking the toll recorded by the department to 602.
This comes after the Northern Assembly announced it will introduce tough new restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus, which will see schools, pubs and restaurants close for two weeks.
The 1,217 daily case tally is not directly comparable to the first wave of the pandemic, as much fewer tests were being carried out in that period.
