There have been a further 1,432 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by the Department of Health today.
As of this morning, 272 people are hospitalised with the disease in the state, of whom 63 are in the ICU.
There has been a total of 5,209 deaths related to COVID-19 notified in Ireland. These include 30 deaths newly notified in the past week.
The government also announced today that from Monday, automatic contact tracing will end in primary schools and childcare facilities, and close contacts will no longer have to isolate or get tested if they don’t have symptoms.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said “We have been closely monitoring the incidence of COVID-19 and we are reassured that the reopening of schools has not led to an increase in transmission of COVID-19 amongst school-going children or more widely across the population.”
“This is good news for students, parents and all those involved in the education of our children,” Dr Tony Holohan said.
“As always, we will keep disease transmission in the population under review, but given the importance of education for our children we feel that now is the right time to evolve our approach to the public health management of COVID-19 in educational settings.”
Dr Holohan said that there is still a “substantially higher risk” of transmitting the virus within households, so children aged 13 and under who are a household close contacts will still have to restrict movements and get tested.
“Public health advice remains that any person, including children aged 12 yrs or under, who displays symptoms consistent with COVID-19 should rapidly self-isolate and not attend school or socialise until 48 hours after they are symptom free.”
