NPHET will discuss the sudden rise in the number of people admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 at a meeting this morning.
The Chief Medical Officer, Tony Holohan, has expressed concern that 8 people were admitted to ICU with the virus yesterday.
That's more admissions in a 24-hour period than has happened since the middle of spring.
227 more cases have been confirmed and five patients have died.
Health Systems Professor at DCU, Anthony Staines, says it's a stark reminder of how damaging this disease can be.
"We are doing this to protect the people who are not vaccinated, and people who are not going to respond to vaccination.
"People who don't respond to vaccination are those at greatest risk of falling seriously ill from this disease, and part of why we're doing this is to protect everyone in our population."
