Health Minister Simon Harris has told the Dáil that the reproductive rate for Covid-19 is now between 0.4 and 0.5. The minister said that this suggests a "stable transition" where the virus has been kept under control, while moving to the first phase of reopening our society.
The reproductive rate of the virus refers to how many other people a confirmed case goes on to infect. The minister said this and and other key indicators give grounds for "cautious optimism".
Minister Harris said the number of people in hospital and intensive care remained stable through last week. He said there had been one to two admissions to ICU and 10 to 15 admissions to hospital a day.