Ireland at a crossroads in the coronavirus pandemic, says Minister

Ireland is at a crossroads in the coronavirus pandemic, a government minister has said.

Dublin city and county have been placed under tighter restrictions following a surge of cases in the capital.

Simon Harris, Minister for Further and Higher Education, said the Government "acted very rapidly" on the National Public Health Emergency Team's advice earlier this week.

"There is a very, very narrow window here now, where we the Irish people have a choice," he told RTÉ.

"We're at a crossroads. This could go one of two ways. We have to act now to make sure we do not go back to where we were in March or April."

Referring to previous local lockdowns in counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly, Mr Harris said "swift action" had been taken, adding that simply shutting meat factories in those counties would not have been enough.

Mr Harris also said that while Ireland is testing more people for Covid-19 than most other European countries, more investment is needed.

He said that there are currently about 14,000 tests a day being carried out, the vast majority of which are returned negative.

"What we have to be doing here, every single one of us, is reducing the spread of this virus," he said.

"You have to increase testing infrastructure and we're doing that, but you also need to lessen the need for people to have tests."

A total of 396 further cases of Covid-19 were reported in Ireland by the National Public Health Emergency Team on Sunday.

This brings the total number of cases to 32,933.

Of the latest cases, 241 were in Dublin, 36 in Cork, 19 in Donegal, 12 in Galway, 11 in Meath, 11 in Kildare, nine in Monaghan, seven in Louth, six in Clare, six in Offaly, six in Waterford and five in Wicklow, with the remaining 27 cases spread across 11 counties.

No further deaths were reported, leaving the toll at 1,792.