A further 3,138 COVID cases have been announced this evening.
This morning, there were 643 COVID-19 patients in Irish hospitals – a 17% increase on this day last week.
There were 118 in intensive care, which is up 23% on last week.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said there is still time to prevent infections in the run-up to Christmas.
The five-day moving average has now fallen to 4,089.
The five-day moving average. Image: Newstalk“Anyone who is going to get COVID-19 in December has not yet been infected,” he said.
“Their infection is not inevitable and there is still time to prevent it by small changes in our behaviour.
“Those of us who have symptoms must stay home, self-isolate and get a PCR test – not an antigen test.
“All of us who are household contacts of a confirmed case need to restrict our movements and stay at home for 5 days.
“The rest of us need to minimise our chances of coming into contact with the virus by reducing the number of people we meet and layering up on the public health advice - vaccine/booster, clean hands, masks, open windows, avoid crowds, work from home unless absolutely necessary.”
It comes after the HSE asked some hospitals to prioritise urgent treatment and COVID-19 care over the next two weeks due to pressure on the system.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, the HSE chief Paul Reid said the perecentage of COVID patients requiring intensive care has doubled since January.
“If you look back to January, we had around 200 people in ICU - around 10% of our COVID patients.
"Now, around 20% of our COVID patients are in ICU - that’s a severe draw on our ICU capacity.”
He said the HSE is using private hospitals for extra capacity and is currently working to increase its private hospital use to around 2,800-3,000 bed days per week.
Meanwhile, pharmacies around the country are restoring vaccine stocks as they prepare to join the booster rollout next week.
On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, the Secretary General of the Irish Pharmacy Union Darragh O'Loughlin said chemists will increase the capacity of the booster programme by around 60,000 jabs per week.
