A further nine people with COVID-19 have died in the Republic.

One death that had previously been classed as COVID-related has been denotified, so the number of deaths now stands at 1,678.

Meanwhile, 24 new cases of the virus have been confirmed, while four have been denotified, bringing the total number of cases here to 25,183.

Data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre shows that of the 25,159 cases reported to it as of midnight on June 4, 3,319 (13%) have been hospitalised and of these, 410 have been admitted to ICU.

Some 8,059 cases are associated with healthcare workers, which is 32% of all cases nationwide.

Earlier, the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, said that there had been "a very encouraging drop in the number of patients with COVID-19 in Irish hospitals".

As of Saturday morning, there were 123 people in hospital with confirmed COVID-19, down from over 180 patients last week.

The Mater Hospital in Dublin has the highest number of patients with confirmed COVID-19, at 31, however this has fallen from 50 last week.

On Friday, the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, announced that an accelerated reopening of the country is to take place from Monday, June 8. For more on this, click here.

Until then, phase 1 remains in place. For more information on this, click here.