The HSE says there are over 400 people in hospital sick with Covid-19 this morning.
Latest figures show 812 patients in hospital have been diagnosed with the virus, with around half being treated for other medical issues and testing positive incidentally.
Over 300 confirmed hospitalised cases have never been vaccinated against Covid-19.
HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Colm Henry says it's highly disruptive to hospital services:
"Over half are sick, and they're in because they are sick with COVID, they have got COVID related illness and that's why they're in hospital. The others are testing positive for COVID because they were in contact with a case or so on. They're obviously sick because they're in hospital, but then they're testing positive for COVID. We have to apply the same infection prevention control measures to stop that transmitting through to somebody who's not vaccinated, or somebody that's on chemotherapy."
