Seven deaths and 482 new Covid-19 cases

There have been seven deaths and 482 new cases of Covid-19, the Department of Health have confirmed this evening.

The total death toll since the outbreak began is now 1,972 .

As of midnight yesterday, there has now been a total of 67,099 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the new cases reported, 238 are men and 244 are women.

A total of 61 percent of the new cases are in people under 45 years of age and they have a median age of 35 years old.

The cases included 128 in Dublin,45 in Cork, 43 in Waterford, 24 in Donegal, 24 in Meath, 36 in Limerick and the remaining 182 cases are spread across 20 other counties.

As of 2pm today, 258 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 35 are in ICU. 12 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: “The increase in case numbers of COVID-19 today is an important reminder of the unpredictable nature of this highly infectious disease.

"The hard work undertaken by all of us over the last three weeks is to be commended, but we must not allow our success to date let us drop our guard against the spread of this disease.

“We need to hold firm to the public health advice: keep 2m distance, wash our hands, wear face coverings where appropriate and limit ourselves to essential contacts from our own household. If we can keep up high levels of compliance, we can get to where we need to be on the 1st December.”