The R number in Northern Ireland is between 1.1 and 1.6, the Department of Health has confirmed.
R represents the number of people who, on average, will be infected by a single person with the virus.
It comes as the department confirmed that one person has died from Covid-19 and a further 77 people have tested positive. Read more
The death toll stands at 563 and the number of new positive cases per day in the past seven days has risen to 66.3. The figure was 56.3 in the previous seven-day period.
Over a rolling 14-day period the number of positive cases was 45.3 per 100,000 of the population, up from 36.9 per 100k in the previous 14 days.
Last month Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said he would recommend a return to full lockdown if the figure reached 80 cases per 100,000.
Last week Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Ian Young said that at the start of the pandemic in March the R number was at 2.8 and dropped to 1 during lockown.
The Department of Health said the indicators released today "show a further increase in transmission in the last week" and the areas of main concern are Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, which is partly explained by a cluster at Craigavon Area Hospital, and Belfast, where it said no predominant cluster had been identified.
The number of people who have tested positive per 100,000 of the population in the past 14 days remains higher than in the Republic and in Britain and the department said it was "likely to be partly explainable by increased testing" in the context of the Test/Trace/Protect service.
"However, there is also likely to be a more widespread increase in community transmission which is a matter of significant concern."
One in 10 of those testing positive for coronavirus is over 60 years of age and at the peak of the epidemic this age group accounted for between 40% and 50% of cases.
"As a result, hospital admissions are increasing very slowly but are still at a low level in comparison to the first wave when there was a comparable number of cases.
"The view from both the Modelling Group and the Strategic Intelligence Group is that they will inevitably rise if cases continue to do so."
Read more: Second coronavirus Nightingale facility to open, Health Minister Robin Swann confirms
Department of Health statistics
- Average number of new positive tests per day last seven days - 66.3
- Seven day incidence based on new positive tests - 24.4 per 100k population
- 14-day incidence based on new positive tests - 45.3 per 100k population
- Seven day average of total tests (pillar 1 and 2) which are positive - 1.45%
- First Covid positive hospital admissions in last week - 17
- Seven-day average number of Covid occupied hospital beds - 21.0
Meanwhile, in the Republic there have been 95 confirmed new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to 29,206.
No further deaths with the virus were reported today.
Of the latest cases, 52 are men, 43 are women, 67% are under 45 years of age and 47% are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case.
Most of the cases are in Dublin (51), with six in Kildare, six in Meath, and the remaining 32 cases across counties Carlow, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Offaly, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow.
