Ireland’s health officials confirmed 14,549 new Covid cases on Tuesday as the BA.2 variant continues to drive the surge.
That number is made up of 5,962 positive PCR tests and 8,587 positive registered antigen tests.
Meanwhile, latest figures show there are 1,605 people in hospital with Covid, of which 50 are in ICU.
READ MORE: Full lockdown only way to suppress Ireland's Covid spike but Stephen Donnelly rules out restrictions
It comes amid concern that restrictions may be needed to suppress the current spike.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told Opposition TDs that “a full level five lockdown” would be “the only way” to suppress the disease due to its current transmissibility.
However he added that the advice from Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has not changed and there is currently no consideration for more restrictions.
This comes despite calls from several groups to reintroduce more restrictions, with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation urging people to still wear face masks.
Speaking on his way into Cabinet on Tuesday, Minister Donnelly said: “The public health advice that I have from the Chief Medical Officer, from the Department of Health, consistently over the last several weeks has been that whilst we need to continue to follow the protocol public health advice it's really important that those who haven't been boosted yet get their boosters.
“There's no consideration of bringing in new measures.
"The hospital system is under severe pressure. As we know, there is an increasing number of patients with Covid in hospital.
“What we are also looking at, however, is critical care, and when you look at the critical care figures, about half the patients in critical care are in critical care because of Covid and about half… of them have been boosted.”
It comes after Minister Donnelly told Fianna Fail members on Monday night that the true number of Covid cases in the community is “likely to be several hundred thousand per week”.
READ MORE: GP explains why everyone is getting ill at the moment with Covid-like symptoms but testing negative
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