41% of Irish people wearing masks in public
Forty-one percent of people surveyed are now wearing face coverings in public, as the country continues to emerge from Covid-19 restrictions, and resumes economic activity.
That's according to new research, commissioned by the Department of Health, which shows the figure has increased from 34% last week.
But Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ronan Glynn, wants the numbers wearing face coverings to be higher.
"Obviously, it's a concern that uptake doesn't seem to be as high as for the other measures that we've been recommending, but then we haven't been recommending this measure for as long a period, so it's not surprising that it'll take a little while longer for people to get used to it.
"It's not the most natural thing in the world to start wearing a face covering, when it's not something you've done previously, it takes some getting used to."
Meanwhile, two new Covid-19-related deaths have been reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) today.
This brings the current death toll to 1,717.
The HPSC has been notified of four confirmed cases of Covid-19.
The total number of cases in the country has now reached 25,383.
Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan says a number of clusters have also been denotified, and there's been no increase in the amount of clusters.
"473 clusters, 260 of which were in respect of nursing homes, that's the same number in each case that I gave you on Thursday.
"Quite a number of those have been denotified, 345 of those are now closed, and of the 260 in respect of nursing homes, 190 of those have been closed.
"Two incubation periods, or 28 days, have elapsed, since a new case was notified in respect of those settings."
