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The Health Department has been notified of 5,325 new cases of Covid-19 and 17 more deaths.
Ministers have been told that the new strain of the virus, which was originally seen in the UK, now accounts for around 25% of cases based on samples.
To date, there have been a total of 113,322 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 2,282 coronavirus-related deaths in Ireland.
In a statement, the National Public Health Emergency Team said 16 of the deaths reported today occurred this month.
The number of patients receiving intensive care treatment today has increased from six to 76.
At 2 p.m., there were 840 people hospitalized with Covid-19. NPHET said there have been 102 additional hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.
Of the cases reported today, 2,550 are men and 2,769 are women. 63% are under 45 years old, while the average age is 36 years.
1,931 cases are in Dublin, 767 in Cork, 323 in Kildare, 322 in Limerick, 238 cases in Donegal, while the remaining 1,744 cases are distributed in all other counties.
The 14-day incidence rate of the disease is now 674.4 per 100,000.
The counties with the highest incidence rate are Monaghan (1,243), Louth (1,173.1), and Limerick (1,113.4). The counties with the lowest incidence rate are Wicklow (323), Tipperary (326.5), and Westmeath (376.3).
The medical director said there is now a significant increase in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, which can be reversed if people adhere to the measures that worked last spring.
Dr. Tony Holohan said: “We have seen some initial progress in that the average number of contacts per case has decreased in recent days, but we must continue this effort to limit as much as we can our contact with other people in the days and weeks ahead.
“If we all stay home and follow public health advice, we can get Covid-19 back under control, which will ultimately protect our essential services like health and education, and most importantly save lives.” .
The cabinet subcommittee on Covid-19 will meet to discuss the spread of the virus, and school closings this month is one of the proposals being discussed.
The Taoiseach previously told RTÉ’s News at One that the government was considering extending the school closings until the end of the month, and that any decision on schools will focus on preserving the school year.
Micheál Martin also said that the meeting will discuss further restrictions and the possible closure of construction and manufacturing services, and that the committee is considering new measures to “reduce mobility.”
The number of people with Covid-19 in intensive care units is close to the peak of the first wave and the Health Service Executive expects this number to be exceeded by the end of the week.
It comes as an agreement between the HSE and private hospital groups to provide additional capacity which is expected in a few days.
Any blanket agreement is likely to be for a period of approximately 12 months and would involve individual private hospitals or groups of hospitals agreeing to their own particular terms regarding HSE access to a percentage of their capacity.
The Private Hospital Association has said that talks with the HSE are “at an advanced stage”.
Meanwhile, 335,600 people were due to receive Pandemic Unemployment Pay today, an increase of nearly 58,000 or more than 20% since December 22.
According to the latest figures, around 23,000 payments were made between Christmas Eve and December 30 to people who were unemployed in the week before Christmas, as stricter public health restrictions were reintroduced.
This week’s payments amount to just over € 99 million, bringing the total cost of the PUP program since its introduction last March to more than € 5 billion.
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