A consultant in infectious diseases expects more people to end up in hospital with covid in the coming weeks.
It's after virus case numbers were above 1,800 for the second day in a row, with 1,837 new cases detected.
208 patients are being treated in hospital for the virus, a rise of ten on the previous day, with 31 in intensive care.
RCSI Senior Lecturer Eoghan de Barra says a surge in covid admissions will have knock on effects on non Covid care.
"This is an additional number of patients that wouldn't normally be in hospital at this time of year.
"A 200-300 burden of patients that are more complex and have to be isolated from the rest of the hospital means space, capacity diverted away from 'business as usual' - and we know business was usual has been paused or postponed for many months."
