77 more people with Covid19 have died while 1,910 new cases have been confirmed.
23 of the positive tests were returned to Carlow with 16 to Kilkenny.
For the first time since New Year’s Day, the number of new infections has dropped below two thousand.
Dr Tony Holohan says “we are beginning to flatten the curve” because of a national effort to follow the public health advice.
He says the only way to continue this “positive trend” is to continue to avoid meeting others.
There were 710 more cases in Dublin, 150 in Cork, 103 in Meath, 102 in Limerick, and 86 in Louth.
14-day incidence rate
The national average incidence infection rate has now dropped to 955.5 cases per hundred thousand people or slightly LESS than one in a hundred people infected.
Monaghan, Louth and Mayo have seen the highest rates of infection in the country over the last fortnight with Carlow not too far behind.
It has the country’s fourth-highest rate, 1,294.5 per 100,000 population, while Kilkenny’s is half that at 606.7 meaning it’s the county with the seventh-lowest rate in Ireland.
Death
76 of the 77 deaths confirmed today happened in January.
The oldest victim was 98 years old while the youngest was aged just 43.
Hospitals
There were 26 patients being treated for Covid19 at St Luke’s General Hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny last night.
Of these four are still in intensive care.
However there were no new admissions to the facility in the 24 hours up to 8pm Friday and just one further suspected cases there.
