Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan says progress is being made across the country in suppressing Covid.
However, the top doctor says that we cannot ease our efforts at keeping the virus at bay and to stop it spreading within the community.
Dr Holohan, in a rare sign of optimism in recent weeks, reflected that a move to Level 5 may be showing signs of paying off.
He said the incidence of the virus was decreasing in younger people, however it was continuing to rise in people aged over 75.
“We have more to do but we are on the right track,” he said.
Ireland is currently one of only four countries in the EU with a reduction in its 7-day incidence, and our reproductive number has reduced to about 1.
His comments came as the daily number of new cases yesterday evening fell to the lowest number recorded since 4 October.
An additional 416 new cases of the virus were confirmed yesterday evening, while five further deaths were also recorded.
It brings the total number of Covid-related deaths to 1,913, while there have been a total of 61,456 cases.
Latest figures show that as of 8am this morning, there were 324 people with Covid-19 in Irish hospitals.
As of 8pm last night, there were 43 Covid-19 patients in intensive care, with 25 on ventilators, while there were also 45 critical care beds available.
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