The Acting Chief Medical Officer has said that "unfortunately" he does not believe it is possible to eliminate Covid-19 from Ireland as things stand and "we have to live with the threat of it".
Dr Ronan Glynn said the medium-term strategy from the National Public Health Emergency Team's perspective is to "protect our priorities".
He said the Government is working on a wider cross-government plan.
Dr Glynn said last week's measures were introduced "to decrease congregations in some settings, because we want to protect our ability to congregate in other settings.
"So we want to protect the ability for children to congregate in schools, protect the ability for people to go and to use our healthcare services and to protect the most vulnerable across the society, but we can only do that if we can all act collectively together".
He said over the next three weeks, the National Public Health Emergency Team needs people "to cut down their discretionary activity so the important things can get up and running".
Dr Ronan Glynn: "Unfortunately I don't believe that it's possible to eliminate this disease from our country as things currently stand - we have to learn to live with the threat of it" | https://t.co/nE1U19gxBU pic.twitter.com/LaxpySOabE
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) August 24, 2020
The Department of Health has reported 147 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the number of confirmed cases to 28,116.
There are no further deaths reported, meaning the total number of Covid-19-related deaths remains at 1,777.
In Northern Ireland, another ten cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the past 24 hours, the Department of Health said. It takes the total number of cases there to 6,776.
There have been no more deaths and the number of deaths in Northern Ireland remains at 559.
Dr Glynn said there has been 1,354 cases in the Republic over the past 14 days.
Of those cases, 457 (34%) were in Dublin, 327 (24%) in Kildare, 91 (7%) in Tipperary, 82 (6%) Limerick, 38 (3%) in Meath, 36 (3%) Offaly, and 35 (3%) in Laois.
The remaining cases were spread across 18 counties.
The President of the Irish College of General Practitioners said parents should be more vigilant this school year.
Speaking at the Department of Health briefing this evening, Dr Mary Favier said: "If a child is otherwise well, doesn't have any respiratory symptoms, doesn't have a cough but just constantly sniffles and sneezes the odd time, they can go to school and they should go to school".
She said for a child who has more than that, such as a temperature, a cough or any of the symptoms that might suggest Covid such as being unable to taste food, they should not go to school.
She said they should stay at home until 48 hours until after the symptoms settle.
Dr Ronan Glynn says that less than 3% of Covid-19 cases to date have been in children under 14 years of age | https://t.co/nE1U19gxBU pic.twitter.com/fd7ZM3ISRJ
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) August 24, 2020
Dr Glynn urged those who have concerns or who are looking for information to log onto gov.ie/returntoschool.
He said: "While Covid is with us, we have choices to make" and "ultimately we're trying to keep the cases low as possible for three reasons, to protect the education system, to protect the vulnerable and to protect our healthcare services.
He said there were 84 cases in children under 14 years of age last week, and if nothing changes, he expects a similar number this week and next week, when many of those children are back in school.
Dr Glynn also said there has been an increase in cases in Dublin over the past few days and officials are watching this closely.
Acting CMO Ronan Glynn says there has been an increase in Covid-19 cases in Dublin over the last number of days, says it's being watched closely and he urges people to follow public health advice | https://t.co/nE1U19gxBU pic.twitter.com/0XF99trlP7
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) August 24, 2020
Dr Cillian De Gascun, Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said over three quarters of a million tests have been carried out since the start of the pandemic.
He said 57,670 tests were carried out last week, with a positivity rate of 1.3%.
He said they are looking at alternative forms of testing children for Covid and so do not necessarily want to subject them to repeated swabbing, so are looking at alternatives including saliva testing.
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The number of patients in public hospitals with confirmed Covid-19 has increased to 28, up from 20 the previous day.
Figures compiled by the Health Service Executive show that at 8pm last night there were also 90 patients in hospital with suspected cases of the virus, up from 82 the previous day.
The number of patients with confirmed Covid-19 in intensive care units remains at six.
There are ten patients in ICUs with suspected Covid-19, up from six the previous day.
Meanwhile, Ireland's EU Commissioner Phil Hogan has told the President of the European Commission that he was assured on two separate occasions by the organisers that the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner which he attended in Co Galway last week was Covid-compliant, RTÉ News understands.
A spokesperson said that Mr Hogan spoke by phone with Ursula von der Leyen this afternoon. It is understood both have also been in touch by text message.
Last night Mr Hogan delivered a two-page report to President von der Leyen on the event and on his movements around Kildare and other counties in the run up to the golf event.
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Today a spokesperson for the President said she had sought further details and clarifications from Mr Hogan.
Earlier, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he was very angry about the controversy surrounding Mr Hogan, which "simply should not have happened".
In Northern Ireland, schools reopened today for the first time since March after months of disruption due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Despite warnings from teachers' unions that educators had not been given enough time to respond to safety rules issued earlier this month, Northern Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride insisted it was safe for children to return.
Schools have been advised that strict social distancing between children may be relaxed if there are hygiene measures in place.
The government also said face coverings are not mandatory for routine use by pupils.
The World Health Organization says data to date suggests 80% of Covid-19 infections are mild or asymptomatic, 15% are severe infection, requiring oxygen and 5% are critical, requiring ventilation.
Generally, you need to be 15 minutes or more in the vicinity of an infected person and within two metres of them, to be considered at-risk, or a close contact.
