James Cox
Tullamore in county Offaly continues to have the highest incidence rate of Covid-19 in the country.
Over the past two weeks there were 408 per 100,000 people, which is more than three times the national average.
The figures from the Health Protection Surveillence Centre (HPSC) are up to Monday, when the national incidence rate was 131.
In total there are 10 local electoral areas with a rate greater than 300, including Ongar, Ballymun-Finglas and Donaghmede in Dublin, as well as Milford in Donegal and Cavan-Belturbet.
A number of those areas with high rates have had pop-up testing centres set-up to detect asymptomatic cases in the past couple of weeks.
18 electoral areas nationally have a rate of less than five cases with areas of Kerry, Clare, Cork and Tipperary having some of the lowest infection rates in the country.
The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has described a meeting with deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn on Thursday as the “most positive” post-Nphet briefing "in a long time".
In a tweet on Thursday evening, Mr Donnelly said Ireland is making strong progress, thanks to “a huge effort by household right across the country”.
While cautioning that there is “still a good deal of risk”, the Minister highlighted Ireland's 10 per cent reduction in the national five-day case average in the last week, and a 13 per cent decrease in the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 as two signs of the country's improving situation.
