HSE boss Paul Reid has said it is “really encouraging” that the number of people in ICU with Covid-19 has remained stable.
However, he said pressure remains on the health system with 15,000 staff out sick and said “tackling this wave with one arm tied behind our back.”
Mr Reid said there’s now “plenty of evidence” that the Omicron variant is not as severe as previous coronavirus strains.
He said: “Our ICU numbers have remained stable, which is really encouraging for us, and we haven’t had to go into surge capacity on our ICU.
"The volume of the cases and the pace of the rise of the cases over the last few weeks continues to put a strain on our healthcare services, in terms of getting to the wider demands that are coming at them.
“Obviously we do expect to see it improve over the next while.”
Of the 1,011 people in hospital with a confirmed case of Covid-19, Mr Reid said 40% of patients have not received any vaccine.
Of the 92 people in ICU, Reid says that at least 48% have not been fully vaccinated but that this figure could be closer to 50%.
He said 30% of people in hospital with the disease were admitted for non-Covid treatment but were later identified as positive cases.
The HSE chief executive said 715,000 people are eligible to get their booster but have not yet done so.
Chief Clinical Officer, Dr Colm Henry said one in 16 people have had a positive PCR test since the beginning of January.
Head of testing for the HSE, Damien McCallion said there is now a capacity to provide 300,000 PCR tests a week, alongside a capacity to send out 600,000 antigen tests a week.
The HSE has said they will not issue a Covid recovery cert to people if they input that they have received a positive antigen test when the service goes live on Friday.
This is to avoid any misuse of the system and a PCR or professionally administered antigen results are required to receive a recovery cert.
