A further 814 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the Republic, bringing the total number of cases here to 42,528.

Two more deaths have also been reported, bringing the total number of deaths here to 1,826.

Of the 814 cases, 226 occurred in Dublin, 77 in Cork, 64 in Galway, 56 in Donegal and 48 in Meath.

As of 2pm on Sunday, there are 204 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in hospital, 30 of whom are in ICU. There have been 16 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

The Department of Health's chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, pointed out that 22 out of the 26 counties have seven-day incidence rates as a percentage of 14-day incidence rates above 50%.

This shows "rapidly increasing growth rates across the country", he said.

"It is vital that the entire population consistently implement public health advice into their daily lives - keep your social contacts to an absolute minimum and keep physical distance when you need to be out of your home," Dr Holohan added.

Earlier today, a further 1,066 cases of COVID-19 were also confirmed in Northern Ireland, along with one more death.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, has said that schools will not close for a second week as part of the Halloween mid-term break.

Schools are due to close on October 23 for one week, however a report in the Independent last week suggested that a second week was being considered.

Speaking on RTE's This Week radio programme on Sunday, Minister Donnelly insisted that "there is not going to be a longer mid-term break".

He said that this is based "on some very good news out of the schools".

"The evidence is that schools are not contributing to a rise in numbers. If we look at the number of school-age children who contracted the virus before the schools opened and afterwards, they are about the same," he noted.

The entire country is now in level 3 of the Government's COVID plan. For more information on this, click here.