The Chief Medical Officer has said the current 14-day incidence of Covid-19 remains more than double the rate experienced at the peak of the previous Level 5 restrictions in October.
Dr Tony Holohan said that the risk of virus transmission in the community remains very high and he urged people not to drop their guard and start to interact with people outside their household.
By 8pm last night the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital had eased again to 1,598, down 20% from the peak 10 days ago. But the pressure on intensive care continues unabated with 211 Covid-19 patients in ICU, 136 of them on ventilators.
In addition, there were no spare critical care beds available in 14 acute hospitals - half of our total. Yesterday was the fifth