Health officials have announced a further 3,138 COVID cases this evening.
This morning, there were 643 COVID-19 patients in Irish hospitals – a 17% increase on this day last week.
There were 118 in intensive care, which is up 23% on last week.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said there is still time to prevent infections in the run-up to Christmas.
“Anyone who is going to get COVID-19 in December has not yet been infected,” he said.
“Their infection is not inevitable and there is still time to prevent it by small changes in our behaviour.
“Those of us who have symptoms must stay home, self-isolate and get a PCR test – not an antigen test.
“All of us who are household contacts of a confirmed case need to restrict our movements and stay at home for 5 days.
“The rest of us need to minimise our chances of coming into contact with the virus by reducing the number of people we meet and layering up on the public health advice - vaccine/booster, clean hands, masks, open windows, avoid crowds, work from home unless absolutely necessary.”
Handout photo issued by Photocall Ireland of Paul Reid, HSE CEO, speaking at an HSE briefing at DCU Glasnevin campus in Dublin.It comes after the HSE asked some hospitals to prioritise urgent treatment and COVID-19 care over the next two weeks due to pressure on the system.
This morning, HSE chief Paul Reid said the perecentage of COVID patients requiring intensive care has doubled since January.
“If you look back to January, we had around 200 people in ICU - around 10% of our COVID patients.
"Now, around 20% of our COVID patients are in ICU - that’s a severe draw on our ICU capacity.”
He said the HSE is using private hospitals for extra capacity and is currently working to increase its private hospital use to around 2,800-3,000 bed days per week.
