21,384 confirmed cases of Covid-19 today

The Department of Health has reported 21,384 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 today.

984 people are in hospital with the virus, of whom 83 are being treated in ICU.

As demand for PCR tests continues, the HSE this week estimated that up to 150-thousand Covid-19 infections may have escaped official confirmation.

From last week, symptomatic people aged between 4 and 39 were advised to contact the HSE and request for antigen tests to be sent out to them.

CEO of the HSE, Paul Reid says a new online system to allow people register a positive antigen test result should be available from next week: ”We will have a system in place by the end of next week whereby people can go onto the HSE site and register their antigen test result. ”