James Cox
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn has appealed to people in Co Limerick to continue to adhere to public health guidelines this weekend.
The Covid incidence rate in the county remains high, with 879 cases in the past two weeks.
Dr Glynn said there had been a strong public effort to keep numbers down, adding that it was important to keep this up.
He urged people to continue to only meet outdoors, avoid crowds, and come forward for testing if experiencing any symptoms.
Dr Glynn's appeal comes with high temperatures forecast for the weekend, with Sunday expected to be the hottest day of the year so far.
There was controversy in Limerick yesterday after it emerged that a vaccination centre would be temporarily closed to facilitate a horse racing meeting.
The HSE vaccination centre based on the grounds of the racecourse located in Patrickswell will close today while racing goes on at the track, a spokesman for the UL Hospitals Group confirmed this afternoon.
The vaccination centre will also close to allow racing meetings on June 18th, July 4th, July 10th and July 22nd, he added.
A further 319 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the Republic on Friday.
On Friday morning there were 60 Covid-positive patients in hospital, of whom 23 were in intensive care.
Delta variant
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has called for a collective effort from political leaders across Ireland and the UK to tackle new strains of the the virus.
Mr Martin said “all hands on deck” are needed to deal with what he called the “dark cloud on the horizon” of the Delta variant of Covid-19, first identified in India.
Outgoing Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster said the Delta variant now makes up around 20 per cent to 25 per cent of new cases in the North, raising concerns that case numbers and hospital admissions could rise in the weeks ahead.
The issue was high on the agenda of a meeting of the British-Irish Council in Co Fermanagh on Friday.
