COVID-19 cases in Ireland top 70,000

Ireland reported 344 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the country's caseload to 70,143, according to the Irish Department of Health.

Four more people died from COVID-19, bringing the death toll in the country to 2,022, said the department in a statement.

According to the department, there are currently 269 COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the country, of whom 32 are in intensive care units.

Earlier this week, Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health, said that he was increasingly concerned that the positive trends emerging recently had not been maintained.

According to Holohan, the five-day moving average of daily cases in Ireland had increased from an average of 350 cases on November 11 to 424 on November 17.

Since then, there is no obvious improvement in the situation with the daily cases in the country still averaging nearly 370 in the past five days, according to official statistics.

The Irish government is continuing discussions over the weekend on what COVID-19 restrictions should be in place when the current Level-5 or the highest level restrictions expire at the end of this month, reported the Irish national radio and television broadcaster .

( With inputs from ANI )