A further eight deaths and 2,121 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the Republic, the Department of Health has said.
Of the new cases, 753 were in Dublin, 236 in Cork, 142 in Wexford, 126 in Kildare, 109 in Limerick and the remaining 755 cases spread across all other counties.
Monaghan has the highest 14-day incidence rate in the country at 2,750 cases per 100,000, followed by Louth at 2,211 and Waterford at 1,995.
It comes as the number of coronavirus patients in hospital continues to surge, with 1,975 now in hospitals across the State.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid said critical care surge plans have been activated.
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said there were now “more sick people in hospital than any time in the course of this pandemic.”
“The risk that this disease poses to the individual who is infected has not changed. What has changed is that we are experiencing a much greater level of community transmission and as a result we are seeing higher numbers of people with severe illness who require hospitalisation or admission to intensive care and higher numbers of mortality.
“Please continue to stay at home and drive down this infection in our community,” he said.
Covid vaccine
Meanwhile, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly asked bosses at the Coombe hospital in Dublin for a “full account” after it emerged that Covid vaccinations were given to family members of staff.
The relatives of employees at the south Dublin hospital were vaccinated with doses left over from a batch.
A spokeswoman for the hospital said 16 doses of the vaccine were left after 1,100 frontline workers, including GPs and community health staff, were vaccinated.
Of the 16 recipients, nine were over 70 and the other seven were of varying ages. The hospital said the doses would have been thrown out if they had not been administered.
Later it emerged two family members of staff in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin also received leftover Covid vaccines that the maternity hospital said it feared would be wasted otherwise.
