Eight more people with Covid-19 have died and a record 1,276 new cases have been confirmed across the Republic.
278 of these are in Dublin, with 149 in Cork, 108 in Meath, 107 in Galway and 80 in Wexford.
The remaining cases are spread across 21 counties with 24 in Kilkenny.
The figures also include five in Carlow. But the county’s doing well compared to others having had the country’s third lowest rise and it’s in the bottom three for the five day moving average while it had the least number of cases in the 14 day incidence rate to midnight Friday (16th October).
Nationwide 260 Covid-19 patients are being treated in hospital, of which 30 are in ICU, and there’ve been 12 new hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Talks …
Ireland’s most senior public health officials have left the government to deliberate on their call for a fresh lockdown after hours of talks today.
NPHET has urged a nationwide move to Level Five of the government’s national plan to control for the outbreak for six weeks.
Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan, Deputy CMO Ronan Glynn, and Professor Phillip Nolan of NPHET’s modelling group all left government buildings shortly after 6pm without speaking to the press.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid said it was up to the government now.
Full breakdown of the latest figures which were announced this evening (Saturday, 17th October):
