The Chief Medical Officer has warned we "can't afford to drop our guard" after Ireland recorded its highest ever number of daily Covid deaths.
The Department of Health confirmed on Tuesday evening that a further 93 people had died after contracting the deadly virus.
And while the number of cases continues to steadily drop, Dr Tony Holohan has warned that the situation in our hospitals is of "critical concern".
As of 2pm, there were 1,949 patients in hospital fighting the virus. A worrying 202 of these were in intensive care at 11am.
He said: “While we are starting to see the early results of our collective efforts to minimise the transmission of the virus, we are very sadly reporting an additional 93 deaths today.
"We cannot afford to drop our guard against the very high levels of infection that remain in the community at present.
"Covid-19 ICU and hospitalisation numbers are of critical concern to us, representing a very significant pressure on our healthcare workers and on the provision of acute medical and surgical non-Covid care.
"We need everyone to stay at home, other than for essential reasons.
"The more that each individual follows this advice in their everyday lives, the more we can drive down the spread of Covid-19 and minimise the impact on vital healthcare services, patients and frontline workers.”
Dublin yet again had the higher number of new infections at 701, followed by Cork (204), Waterford (102) and Meath (98).
Of those diagnosed, 1,098 were women and 892 were men, while the average age was 42.
