There has been one further death from Covid-19 in Ireland and 17 additional cases have been confirmed.
It takes the overall death toll to 1,754, while there have now been 25,819 confirmed cases.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said: "I appreciate how difficult it is for people to limit their social activities and to physically distance from friends and loved ones.
"These actions are vital to our collective effort to suppress this highly infectious disease as we work towards reopening our schools and our healthcare services, and to protect our healthcare workers who have been at the frontline of this pandemic over the past six months."
In Northern Ireland, another nine people tested positive for Covid-19, but there were no new deaths and the toll there remains at 556.
Meanwhile, the Health Service Executive has said that there has been a 20% increase in GP referrals for Covid-19 tests.
The detail was included in the coronavirus update where CEO Paul Reid also said that the majority of cases are now in people under the age of 45.
The median age is 33 with over 70% of the cases under 45 years of age.
Close contacts have also increased by over 55% in the last week from just over two to 5.4 per case.
Most reported cases are in Dublin, Kildare and Cork.
The current turnaround from a person getting a GP referral for a test to getting their result is 1.8 days.
Mr Reid said there are significant and worrying trends in recent weeks. From 5-18 July there were 267 total confirmed cases compared to 155 in the previous 14-day period.
He said there is also a significant number of people not attending for tests that they have been offered and he urged people to play their part in stopping the spread of Covid-19.
Mr Reid told the briefing that Ireland is one of the countries carrying out contact tracing and carrying out tests on close contacts on days zero and seven.
However, he said there is now a longer dialogue involved in persuading people to have a test when offered one and, he said, the fact that people are committing to an appointment and not attending is of real concern.
He reminded everyone that this "was never going to be a short game" and said while he understood that there were public frustrations with certain Government actions, everyone was responsible for personal actions.
Mr Reid urged the public to "stick with us" on the guidance around dealing with the pandemic.
Dropping our own guard right now, he said, will have significant implications.
Around 50,500 tests have been completed in the last week, with the average positivity ratio around 0.3%.
He said there has been good take up from the public in relation to the Covid-19 app and through that 91 people have been alerted that they were in close contact with a case.
Mr Reid said that Covid-19 appears to be less transmissable in those under the age of ten, but a huge degree of vigilance is required.
He said health services will be delivered differently as they are restored and he asked the public to be patient with the HSE as services are reinstated.
Mr Reid said that support to general practice will be enhanced and digital healthcare will be a key aspect of delivering health services differently in future.
He said that significant investment will be needed for the winter plan, which will "have to be a winter plan like we have never seen before".
Mr Reid issued a call to the public asking them to come forward and get the flu vaccination this winter. He said the agreement with the private hospitals has been terminated but a transition plan is in place.
He added that efforts to reach agreement on a deal is under way to see how they can be utilised in the case of a second surge.
HSE Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor said almost 7.5 million items of Personal Protective Equipment have been delivered over the past week, which is a significant logistical challenge.
Ms O'Connor said PPE is delivered to over 400 sites on a daily basis and residential care, home support and acute hospitals are the main recipients.
She told the HSE briefing that emergency department attendances have gone down and are now lower than the same time last year.
She said admissions have also reduced and a there is now level of stability. There was a particular focus on people over the age of 75, she said.
Ms O'Connor said efforts are being made to build additional capacity that can be switched on over the coming months.
She said this includes examining modular builds and options where pre-built units could be used on hospital sites.
However, she said, the number one priority is to ramp up a high level of home support and to have community based capacity for those who can use it.
She said a second surge of Covid-19 or a bad 'flu season will be very challenging.
Meanwhile, Chief Clinical Officer with the HSE Colm Henry said advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NHPET) has been very clear and people should not engage in non-essential travel and that travel increases the risk of importing cases back into Ireland.
Liz Canavan of the Dept of the Taoiseach urges people to wear face coverings in places where social distancing is difficult. She says they are not a "special shield", but are another element alongside other measures against the virus | More: https://t.co/8GPNDxbr51 pic.twitter.com/eiqPXfbbnv
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 22, 2020
Liz Canavan, Assistant General Secretary at the Department of the Taoiseach, has urged people to wear face coverings in places where social distancing is difficult.
Speaking at today's Government press briefing, Ms Canavan said while face coverings are not a "special shield", they are another element alongside other measures against the virus.
She appealed to employers to ensure that all necessary measures outlined in the Return to Work protocol are adhered to, following a number of Covid-19 outbreaks in construction and hospitality workplaces.
Ms Canavan said the Government is actively monitoring all potential mechanisms available to procure a vaccine once one becomes available.
Liz Canavan says draft Covid-19 plans for primary and post-primary schools are being progressed. She adds that a "considerable" financial support package to assist schools in reopening is being planned, with more details in the coming days | More: https://t.co/8GPNDxbr51 pic.twitter.com/FUE22LIBCv
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 22, 2020
Ms Canavan said that draft Covid-19 plans for primary and post-primary schools are being progressed.
She added that a "considerable" financial support package to assist schools in reopening is being planned, with more details in the coming days.
Ms Canavan said that the logistical challenges of meeting cleaning and social distancing requirements remain as well as challenges around curriculum and assessment matters, and ensuring the well-being of the school community upon reopening.
She said the Government is very aware of the impact of the pandemic on children and Ms Canavan said that this is why the Taoiseach is placing such an emphasis on reopening schools "as we try to balance the public health, social and economic risks of easing restrictions".
Irish small businesses, meanwhile, have availed of €128m in grant assistance from local authorities since the pandemic began, with the take-up of support measures continuing to grow.
An additional €11.42m has been approved under the online voucher scheme.
Ms Canavan added that there have been 42,766 applications for a restart grant through local authorities, with over 31,000 approved to date.
Overall, 7,600 applications for trading online vouchers were made and 4,800 were approved.
The community call lines provided by local authorities received 530 calls last week with 300 follow up calls provided, Ms Canavan said.
There have been 52,800 calls to these since call lines since 31 March.
Ms Canavan said there has been no confirmed cases of Covid-19 among the Irish prison population, which was a testament to the measures taken by the Prison Service.
The Government has put forward €500,000 to invest in a Creative Ireland programme for older people to counteract the side effects of the pandemic.
Ms Canavan said the programme will begin immediately and be rolled out over 18 months.
