Almost half of the total number of Covid-19 cases in Ireland have been reported in the last two weeks alone.
A further 3,955 new cases have been confirmed, with 28 additional deaths.
There are now 1,789 patients with the virus in hospital - 169 of them are in intensive care.
NPHET says there are some positive signs - with the R number falling to between 1 and 1.3.
DCU Professor of Health Systems, Anthony Staines joined Shane Beatty:
