Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said the rise in the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 was being driven by clusters of cases all around the country.
The minister said eight of these clusters were "quite significant". He also said public health officials were particularly worried by a rise in the number of community transmissions.
Mr Donnelly said things had got progressively and steadily worse in Ireland in the last week or so in relation to the number of new cases of Covid-19.
He said there were currently eight quite significant clusters of the disease, four in Direct Provision centres and four in food processing factories as well as smaller clusters all around the country.