Elective surgeries may have to be cancelled if the number of people in ICU continues to rise.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said the Government doesn't have a red line of hospitalisations that will lead to increased Covid restrictions.
Seán Defoe has this report for RedFM News:
"The number of people in hospital and ICU with Covid has been increasing and as of this morning 101 people were in ICU care with the disease.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said on the current trajectory that could increase to 150 or 200 people - not far off the January peak at the higher end of that modelling.
He says that will have obvious impacts on the health system:
"You have to cancel a lot of elective planned surgery and operations. So there's a lot of people who are waiting for procedures who need those beds or need those beds to be there in case of eventualities."
But head of the HSE, Paul Reid, says the vaccines have made a difference when it comes to hospital care.
His aim is to keep services going:
"What we are aiming to do, as we face into this winter, is continue, to the level extent we can, elective care, continue to treat non-urgent care, and to deal with some of the non-COVID issues that we're seeing come through on our health system. So we have coped with higher numbers."
Meanwhile guidelines for the re-opening of nightclubs will be published today and signed into law.
The regulations will take effect tomorrow."
