A man based in the south of the country who travelled to the UK for the Cheltenham racing festival has tested positive for Covid 19.
It is not known where the man contracted Covid 19. His home in Ireland is in relative proximity to two known clusters of virus detections of Covid 19.
The man only displayed mild symptoms and has not required a hospital admission. However, he is observing strict self-isolation.
His quarantine is so strict that he was warned not to go to work to collect work equipment and machinery to bring to his home.
Contact tracing
Contact tracing has now begun to locate persons who were in close contact with the man.
More than 20,000 Irish horse racing enthusiasts attended the Cheltenham festival a fortnight ago. Hundreds of millions of euro of betting occurs at the event in the Cotswolds in England.
The man is one of 785 Covid 19 cases diagnosed so far in Ireland. 42% of cases arose from community transmission while 35% are linked to travel abroad. Close contact caused the remaining 23% of cases.
Meanwhile, Ireland has ramped up its testing facilities.
Naval ship testing will be carried out from this week in Dublin, Cork and Galway. The testing will be carried out onshore with the vessels acting as support bases.
