HEALTH MINISTER SIMON Harris has said the virus reproductive rate is staying “remarkably stable”, estimated to be between 0.4 and 0.8.

The reproductive rate gives an indication of the number of other people who are infected by a positive case.

Harris informed the Daíl that he was told by chair of the modelling advisory group Professor Philip Nolan that “we can be confident it remains below one this week”.

He said there is no evidence that it is either increasing or decreasing, adding that it is staying “remarkably stable”.

He said this was a testament to the “huge efforts” made by people in this country. Harris asked people to keep a list of the people they meet with to help with contact tracing and said they should not go to work if they feel sick.

Earlier this week Professor Nolan told the Oireachtas Covid-19 Special Committee that he would be “sounding an alarm” if that number started to approach one again. He has pointed out that as the number of new cases drops, it becomes more difficult to estimate this number as there is less data to work with.

The health minister also told the Dáil that the number of patients with Covid-19 in hospitals is now 75, with 29 people in intensive care.