18,904 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed on Thursday evening
1,011 patients are being treated for the virus in hospital, 92 of whom are in ICU.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan underlined the importance of using masks saying they can play a key role in reducing transmission of COVID-19 .
Meanwhile, it’s emerged that people who enter positive antigen test results to the HSE portal will not be eligible for a recovery Digital Covid Certificate.
From tomorrow, people who test positive on an antigen test can upload their result and list their close contacts through the HSE’s website.
Earlier the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly admitted that the system would be open to misuse.
But the HSE now says that in order to ensure misuse is limited, anyone wishing to obtain a recovery cert will need to get a PCR test or professionally administered antigen test to confirm the infection.
