There have been 61 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Ireland this evening, taking the national total to 27,969.

No further deaths have been reported and the death toll remains at 1,777.

The acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said 16 of the new cases have been confirmed as community transmission while 23 are associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of previously confirmed cases.

Some 39 of the cases were in Dublin while 13 were in Kildare and the remainder was split between Cork, Kerry, Laois, Limerick, Longford and Wicklow.

Some 67% of the patients are under 45-years-old.

“I know that at times we can all feel powerless against COVID-19 but we are not,” said Dr Glynn.

“Each of us has a range of simple tools at our disposal – knowing the risks, washing our hands, not touching our faces, keeping physically distant, avoiding crowds, limiting visitors to our homes and wearing a face covering.

“But the most powerful tool of all remains our solidarity with one another. By encouraging each other to stick with the basic measures and by continuing to act and adapt together we can suppress the transmission of this virus once again.”

As of 8am this morning there were 21 COVID-19 patients in Irish hospitals and six in intensive care.

Of the 57,670 tests carried out in the last week, 1.3% came back positive.