Coronavirus: 720 new cases, five further deaths

There have been 720 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 recorded by the Department of Health and five additional deaths. A total of 57,128 cases have now been confirmed in Ireland and 1,882 people with the disease have died. This is the highest number of hospitalizations since May 20.

According to the Department of Health, 17,572 tests were completed in the past 24 hours, and 115,138 in the past week.

There have been 29 new hospitalisations in the last 24 hours.

Of today's cases, 48 were men, 371 were women and 65 per cent were under 45 years of age.

Dublin accounted for 228 of today's cases, while there were 130 in Cork, 47 in Galway, 31 in Meath and 27 in Limerick.

There were 39 patients with the virus in ICU last night, up two on the previous day.

The incidence rate of Covid-19 per 100,000 population in Co Cavan remains the highest in the country.

Dr Tony Holohan said it is too early to consider the decrease in cases as a trend and added that health officials would need to look at a range of indicators before drawing any conclusions.

5 additional Covid-related deaths have also been reported this evening.

Meanwhile in Northern Ireland, a further 722 cases of the virus were confirmed on Tuesday, as well as 13 more deaths.