The Chief Medical Officer has urged people to avoid crowded shops due to the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
Dr Tony Holohan says the strain is accelerating rapidly - and that everyone should consider themselves potentially infectious.
Just under 16,500 cases were confirmed yesterday - a new daily record.
Infectious diseases consultant, Dr Eoghan de Barra, says the true scale of infections isn't known
The testing system is completely full at the moment. I think we all know many people who've been up until midnight trying to get PCR slots, and the system can't cope. We don't have an idea of demand or at least the HSE doesn't release how many clicks they are actually getting to try to get slots. So there are probably many, many more infections out there that either can't get a test, or are not going to bother getting a follow on test or indeed have such minimal symptoms that they're not going to get a test"
