The country is in for a "bumpy journey" over the next few weeks with the Delta variant likely to see cases surge, according to HSE Chief Paul Reid.
A further 1,377 cases of the virus were confirmed on Saturday but the ICU number fell by one to 22.
And in an optimistic message, Mr Reid said that community positivity in testing dropped on Saturday as the race between the vaccines and Delta variant continues.
The HSE Chief said: "A bumpy journey for the next few weeks in terms of #Delta. Thankfully community positivity from testing reduced yesterday from 8.4% to 6.7%. Now 77% of people partially vaccinated and almost 64% fully. A white knuckle ride of vaccines versus Delta but let's get there."
The Taoiseach Micheal Martin echoed this message on Saturday and said he will be meeting with NPHET this week to plan for August and September.
Mr Martin said: "The situation is serious in regards to Delta and all of us have to be vigilant in terms of our individual behaviours because this is a further twist in the road of Covid-19 and there will be high volumes of case numbers, which will continue to grow.
"We're going to keep a very close eye on the hospitalisations that results from that and the illness that results from that.
"We want to prevent people from getting Covid, so it's important people take it seriously from that point of view.
"Quite a lot of cases develop into Long Covid or complications which we do not want and do not need."
With 60% of the adult population now fully vaccinated and younger cohorts getting the jab in the coming weeks, Mr Martin said this will help inform their decisions on how to proceed for the coming months.
The Taoiseach added: "It's a different type of scenario now than a year ago. So I think we need to look at things afresh and analyse where the prevalence is, the age cohorts and what strategies we deploy then to hold it back.
"I will be meeting with the Chief Medical Officer next week, with Philip Nolan and others and Government is meeting on Wednesday and we are going to give this very serious consideration in terms of how we plan for August and how we plan for September.
"We are in a different stage of the pandemic compared to six months or a year ago so that will have to inform how we approach it, it's not as simple as do the things we did a year ago."
