Details of a Winter Covid vaccine campaign are expected to emerge soon.
776 people are in hospital with the virus today, an increase of 25 on yesterday.
There are 31 people being treated for the disease in ICU, up 3.
Immunologist Professor Luke O Neill says studies have shown there's a greater risk of re-infection with the omicron variant:
"Our fear is always new variants, and the risk of an extra variant emerging in the Autumn. Omicron is the latest one and the BA 4 and 5 variants, the siblings as it were. Omicron is five times more likely to reinfect you than Delta, so therefore, in other words this really infectious variant has arisen that can break through."
