A total of 77,303 Covid-19 vaccines have been administered up to yesterday, according to the Heath Service Executive. At a briefing this afternoon, the HSE's chief executive Paul Reid said 69,378 of them were received by frontline healthcare workers and 7,925 were received by people in long term care facilities.
He said said Ireland has received 152,100 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to date, along with 3,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Mr Reid said the number of people who are being admitted to hospitals and ICU is rising at a "very concerning pace", describing the situation in hospitals as "grim".
He said "it is continuing get worse from where we are today" and said staff are reporting that "it is continuing to heat up".