There were 2,549 cases of Covid-19 reported by the Health Department on Friday.
As of 8am today, 481 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 97 are in ICU.
It comes as Leo Varadkar said he “hopes” we can get through the latest Covid wave without going back into some form of lockdown.
But he added that he agrees with Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, in saying that we can’t rule out a return of further restrictions this winter.
He said it is in the public’s hands to ensure that we don’t see the return of restrictions.
And on the strict new rules for hospitality coming into effect for late bars and nightclubs this weekend, Mr Varadkar said he believes the industry would be "understanding".
The Tanaiste was speaking while on a tour of businesses in Monaghan with local Fine Gael TD and Minister, Heather Humphreys.
He said: “It is our hope and our expectation that we will be able to get past this new wave of Covid without having to reimpose restrictions.
“But nobody can rule that out.
“The CMO is absolutely right to say that we can’t take it off the table, and it is in our hands, you know, we need to get vaccines, we need to isolate and get a test if we’ve got symptoms.
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