Today’s Covid cases have flown above 23,000 as hospitals nationwide are trying to juggle with high numbers of virus patients and unrelated emergency cases.
According to the latest update this afternoon, there have been 8,910 PCR-confirmed cases in the last 24 hours.
In addition to this, 14,215 people have registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal - marking a total of 23,125.
As of 8:00 am today, 1,425 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised with severe side effects of the virus - marking an increase of 30 people since Wednesday.
Of this number, 53 people are receiving treatment in ICUs across Ireland.
Before the high case number was confirmed this evening, HSE Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor told RTE News that the health service is “really struggling.”
Speaking on Morning Ireland, she said: "Whether it's in our hospitals, our community services, our national ambulance service, we are really struggling in terms of the level of Covid across services and across our staff.”
Today’s caseload marks a jump on yesterday’s when over 21,000 were reported via PCR test and online antigen logs.
On Wednesday Tánaiste Leo Varadkar confirmed that a new group is due to be put together to advise the Government on Covid affairs.
It seems there is no need to worry about impending restrictions at this point as Varadkar said: “It isn’t a surprise that we’re seeing an increase in infections.
“We don’t want to be turning on and off restrictions.
“We do need to live with this virus and the solution in my view is vaccination," he added.
“It’s heeding the advice to stay at home if you have symptoms, getting a test if you do.”
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