Professor Philip Nolan says Ireland is now 'clearly in a third wave' of the coronavirus pandemic.
The chair of NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group was speaking as there were 727 new cases of the virus here.
While there were no new deaths recorded.
There have been a total of 80,267 cases and 2,158 deaths here.
Of the cases notified today:
- 359 are men/366 are women
- 62% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 36 years old
Some 311 of these cases are in Dublin, 51 in Kilkenny, 48 in Wexford, 44 in Donegal and 44 in Cork.
The remaining 299 are spread across 19 other counties.
As of 2.00pm, 241 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised - of which 29 are in ICU.
There have been 18 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
