A number of factors have brought us to this point, where further measures are being introduced by Government to limit the spread of Covid-19.
Outbreaks in some meat factories, a mushroom farm and direct provision centres have contributed to it. So too has the drift in test and tracing turnaround times, with the system under more pressure now, with more clusters and cases.
Tonight, 190 new cases were reported. The figure last Saturday was 200. More than 54,800 tests were performed in the last week, so that is an average of 7,800 a day.
The capacity is said to be 100,000 a week. Some experts believe the system is falling apart and has slowed down. The HSE says that the median end-to-end turnaround time for community and hospital tests