The Chief Medical Officer is urging anyone to come forward and get a COVID test if they're feeling unwell after stating that the most recent data announced by the Department of Health was impacted by the Christmas season.
Dr Holohan urged people to "please come forward for testing if you feel unwell. Know the symptoms of Covid-19, and do not delay in phoning your GP for advice. Self-isolate in your room if you have a cough, fever, shortness of breath or change in sense of taste/smell. If you are a household contact of a confirmed case, restrict your movements until your household member receives a negative test result."
After announcing that there has been one further COVID-related death and 765 new cases, the CMO said that while this amount of new cases is less than December 26, it's caused by "factors related to the time of the year, such as the lower rates of attendance and referrals and presentation for testing for several days over Christmas."
The number of people who have died with Covid-19 in Ireland now stands at 2,205, while the cumulative total of confirmed cases is 86,894.
The number of patients with the disease in ICU is 30, an increase of four since yesterday. There were 41 additional hospitalisations in the past day and the total number of patients with Covid-19 is now 359.
Speaking about the rise in hospitalisations, Dr Hlohan said: "We look at many metrics when monitoring the disease severity of Covid-19. Today we are reporting that we have now exceeded the cumulative number of people hospitalised in this third wave than in the second.
"Hospitalisations have increased sharply in the last two days. This is a concerning trend which reflects the sharp increase of incidence we saw in the last 10 days."
Of today's new cases, there were 291 cases in Dublin, 63 in Cork, 59 in Monaghan, 49 in Louth, 43 in Meath, and the remaining 260 cases were spread across all other counties.
Here's the county-by-county breakdown of today's new cases;
Donegal - 23
Wexford - 5
Louth - 49
Kilkenny - <5
Limerick - 37
Monaghan - 59
Carlow - <5
Laois - 5
Dublin - 291
Kerry - 23
Cavan - 28
Meath - 43
Longford - <5
Waterford - <5
Sligo - 13
Kildare - 26
Mayo - 9
Cork - 63
Galway - 18
Wicklow - 15
Tipperary - <5
Offaly - <5
Westmeath - 18
Roscommon - 10
Clare - 14
Leitrim - <5
