Officials at the Department of Health have confirmed that 1,124 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in Ireland in the last 24 hours.
349 people are now suffering in hospital with the deadly virus, 65 of those in ICU.
The news comes as a new study conducted in the United States has suggested that the Pfizer-BionNTech vaccine’s effectiveness drops to below 50% after six months.
The data published in the Lancet medical journal states that the Pfizer jab is highly effective against hospitalisation in severe Covid including the dangerous Delta variant, it peters off just 24 weeks after a second dose.
Those with a Pfizer vaccination were found to be 73% protected against infection and 90% protected against hospitalisation.
Vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant was 93% after the first month after the jab, and declining to 53% after four months.
Luis Jodar, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Pfizer vaccines said: "Our variant-specific analysis clearly shows that the (Pfizer/BioNTech) vaccine is effective against all current variants of concern, including Delta."
But the study shows that after 6 months, Pfizer vaccine recipients are just 47% protected against Covid infection.
