A further 25 people with COVID-19 have died in the Republic, bringing the total number of deaths here to 288.

14 males and 11 females died and altogether, 16 had underlying medical conditions. Twenty-three of these deaths occurred in the east of the country and two in the west.

Of the 288 deaths that have taken place so far, 200 occurred in a hospital setting and 31 occurred in an ICU. Some 242 of those who died had underlying health conditions.

The age range of those who have died is from 32 to 105.

Meanwhile, a further 480 new cases of the virus have also been confirmed, bringing the total number of cases here to 7,054.

Earlier, the HSE announced that it and the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) have entered into an agreement with Genomics Medicine Ireland Limited (GMI) for the supply of reagents that will enable the NVRL to significantly ramp up the testing of people with suspected COVID-19.

"Reagents for the production of up to 900,000 tests have been secured by GMI and NVRL, with components for the first 200,000 already delivered to its laboratory in Cherrywood, Dublin.

"The laboratory will operate seven days a week to formulate these reagents for the NVRL and its partner laboratories, who are the primary testing centres for COVID-19. This will enable the NVRL to ramp up to 10,000 tests per day in the coming weeks supporting a more rapid analysis of samples and a quicker turn-around of test results to clinicians," the HSE said.

It was also confirmed earlier today that the restrictions currently in place to stop the spread of COVID-19 have been extended.

They will now be in place until Tuesday, May 5. For more on this, click here.