THERE HAVE BEEN a further 255 cases of Covid-19 confirmed in Ireland, health officials announced this evening. 

This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the Republic of Ireland to 30,985.

The Department of Health also reported one further death associated with the disease. 

A total of 1,784 people with Covid-19 have died in Ireland. 

Of the cases notified today:

• 129 are men / 123 are women
• 68% are under 45 years of age
• 34% are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
• 69 cases have been identified as community transmission
• 156 in Dublin, 22 in Waterford, 13 in Donegal, 11 in Wicklow, nine in Limerick, eight in Kildare, five in Clare and the remaining 31 cases are in Carlow, Cork, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wexford.

As cases continue to rise in the country’s capital, the acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn appealed to Dubliners on Friday to limit their contacts as much as possible over the coming weeks. 

On Tuesday, the government will publish its roadmap for ‘Living with Covid’ which will include a colour-coded, five-level system to indicate what public health measures are in place in different areas of the country at any given time. 

The long-awaited plan will replace the original roadmap set out by Leo Varadkar on 1 May.

Micheál Martin has said that as we are now moving “into a second phase” of the pandemic we must have a plan for how to live with the virus for the next six months.