A further 9,006 COVID cases have been announced this afternoon.

This morning, there were 521 COVID patients in hospital – up 60 since yesterday and 78 since this day last week.

The number of patients in intensive care has dropped by 10 since last week however, with 92 recorded this morning.

The five-day moving average has increased to 10,158.

The five-day moving average. Image: Newstalk

The daily case numbers are currently calculated based on positive test results uploaded to HSE COVID Care Tracker the preceding day and are provisional.

The Department of Health has said the method of calculation is “in anticipation of large volumes of cases numbers over the coming period”.

10853 positive swabs, 43.52% positivity on 24,940 tests.
7 day test positivity is 30.5%.

- Tuesday, December 28th 2021#COVID19Ireland pic.twitter.com/fcHWYeLOHR

— COVID-19 Data Ireland (@COVID19DataIE) December 28, 2021

Yesterday, the department reported a 50% positivity rate for the PCR tests carried out.

Today, that figure has dropped to 43.5%.

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