Health officials have announced a further 1,394 new cases this evening.
This morning, there were 321 coronavirus patients in Irish hospitals – a 16.5% decrease on this day last week.
There were 58 in intensive care – down one on last week.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan urged people to be aware of the symptoms of COVID and contact their doctor immediately if they experience them.
“The awareness of COVID-19 symptoms, and what to do if you experience them, is extremely important,” he said.
“The COVID-19 symptoms for adults and children include fever, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, runny or blocked nose, nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea, aches, fatigue, sore throat, headache.
“Regardless of how mild symptoms may be, we ask that you isolate if you experience any of them and contact your GP. Do not go to school, the workplace or socialise if you or your child exhibits COVID-19 symptoms.”
It comes as the HSE said there are currently no plans to scale back the State coronavirus testing programmes.
NPHET is currently considering a paper that calls for a gradual reduction in testing as Ireland moves to a new stage of its pandemic response.
This morning, HSE testing lead Niamh O’Beirne said the regime will change when the time is right, but demand is currently too high to scale back.
Meanwhile, Maynooth Immunology Professor Paul Moynagh noted that we still haven’t experienced Delta in wintertime and warned against scaling back too early.
