A FURTHER 248 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Ireland, the Department of Health has said this evening.

The total number of confirmed cases is now at 34,560.

In a statement, it said that a further five people confirmed to have Covid-19 have died.

The death toll from Covid-19 in Ireland is 1,802.

Of today’s cases, 104 are in Dublin, 37 in Donegal, 36 in Cork, 8 in Kildare, 8 in Westmeath, 6 in Kilkenny, 6 in Laois, 6 in Offaly, 5 in Longford, 5 in Monaghan, 5 in Wexford, and the remaining 22 cases are in 11 other counties.

36% of the cases are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case while 36 cases have been identified as community transmission.

67% of today’s cases are under 45 years of age.

Health officials in Northern Ireland reported 319 new cases – the biggest daily rise in cases there since the pandemic began.

“Today’s dashboard figures underline once again the seriousness of the situation we are facing. Another person has sadly died and the number of positive cases is the highest on record,” health minister Robin Swann said. 

On Friday, acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn and his Northern Ireland counterpart, Dr Michael McBride, made a specific appeal to teenagers and people in their 20s and 30s in Co Donegal and Derry to reduce their social contacts.

The chief medical officers said they were concerned about the significant proportion of cases in young people in Donegal and Derry, and asked teenagers and those in their 20s and 30s in particular to reduce their social contacts.

The HSE says it is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.

Meanwhile, the Chair of the HSE’s Coronavirus Expert Advisory Group said this afternoon that work is ongoing to bring the country’s testing capacity to where it needs to be.

“What we want to do from a testing perspective is that we want to be able to meet the demand that is there,” Dr Cillian De Gascun told RTÉ Radio One’s Saturday with Katie Hannon.

He said the HSE has done a lot of work to ensure there is “a resilience and robustness that was not there in March or April” but that the recent return of schools highlighted that testing capacity was not sufficient. 

“We’re monitoring a number of metrics looking at GP referrals in the system, the capacity for swabbing in community hubs, and the capacity for testing within the laboratories.”