The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has "been edging" up in recent weeks, according to the HSE's Chief Clinical Officer.
Dr Colm Henry said that this afternoon, there are currently 446 people in hospital with the virus - a rise of almost 30% on the figures from three weeks ago.
Some 40% of these people are sick with the virus, the remainder are in hospital with other conditions. The number of people in ICUs remaining steady at 14.
However, Dr Henry told RTE's This Week that the HSE is not seeing any new variant of concern and neither is it seeing a surge in cases yet. "It is quite expected at this time of the year, as the winter draws in, and people congregate more indoors, that we are going to see a rise in cases and in other winter associated viruses and infectious illness," he said.