A total of 1,751 more people have tested positive for coronavirus in Ireland, while 343 patients are being treated in hospital.
59 people are in ICU with Covid-19.
The figures were confirmed by the Department of Health this afternoon.
In a 21-page letter to the Government, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan warned “we can expect the situation to get worse before we begin to see an improvement.”
He added there is uncertainty about the length of immunity from vaccines and that Covid would be a global challenge for some time to come.
Dr Holohan wrote he could not “fully rule out” the reintroduction of restrictions in the future.
He said: “Revised modelling scenarios calibrated to 11 August 2021 show, for optimistic scenarios, cases counts peaking at 2500-3000 cases per day in mid September, with later peaks in healthcare demand seeing 500-700 people in hospital and 80-130 people in ICU.”
The letter warned that although infections are occurring largely in the young, unvaccinated population, the growing force of infection is resulting in a significant number of infections in older, vaccinated people.
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