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An additional 6,521 cases of Covid-19 and 10 further deaths from the virus were reported on Thursday by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).
It brings to 2,307 the number of Covid-19 related deaths in the State and 127,657 the number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
Of the new cases, 2,174 are in Dublin, 571 in Cork, 382 in Limerick, 342 in Waterford, 315 in Wexford, with the remaining 2,737 spread across all other counties.
On Thursday afternoon, there were 1,043 Covid-19 patients in hospital, including 96 in ICU. The last 24 hours saw 99 additional hospitalisations.
The 14-day incidence stands at 936.4 cases per 100,000 people, with Monaghan, Louth and Limerick recording the highest county figures and Tipperary and Wicklow the lowest.
Thursday’s total was down somewhat on the previous highest daily total of infections of 7,836 on Wednesday.
The five-day moving average of cases stands at 6,147.
Earlier, the HSE confirmed that the number of people sick in the State’s hospitals with Covid-19 had passed 1,000 for the first time.
Health Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Paul Reid described it is as a “sad milestone that nobody wanted to happen”.
“It concerns me relaying this,” he tweeted. “But I do know we will get through a tough time ahead with your help. At the other side, it will be better.”
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said the numbers requiring hospitalisation could go as high as 3,000, but it was hoped that they would not pass the 1,500 mark.
He told RTÉ’s News at One the State was much better prepared this time with a stockpile of PPE, “hundreds of ventilators”, thousands of extra health staff and increased tracing capacity. However, he said the main thing was that people stay at home to protect the health service.
Dr Colman O’Loughlin, intensive care consultant at the Mater hospital in Dublin and president of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, said hospitals may not be able to provide intensive care beds to patients with non-Covid emergencies if there was a surge in critically ill coronavirus patients.
He said the number of Covid-19 patents in hospital ICUs was “manageable” but added that there was a “concerning rise” in critically ill patients. He added that moving to “surge” capacity to manage an increase in Covid-19 ICU patients was complex and would take staff from other parts of hospitals and deny “some very valuable services.”
Vaccines
Meanwhile, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has defended the pace of the State’s vaccination programme.
“We’re not slow. We’re moving at the same pace as the rest of Europe,” he told Newstalk Breakfast on Thursday.
He said that by the end of the first quarter there will have been 470,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines delivered into the country - around 350,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 110,000 of the Moderna vaccine, orders for which were confirmed on Wednesday night following its approval by the EU regulator.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr Donnelly said that the Government was awaiting authorisation of the AstraZeneca vaccine and a further vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, which would be easy to apply and came in one dose.
He said the expectation was that by the end of the February all nursing home residents and staff and all frontline workers will have been vaccinated.
He said the only constraint on the State’s approach to the rollout would be waiting for the doses to arrive.