The Department of Health has confirmed a record 26,122 new cases of Covid 19 today.
As of this morning, 917 patients are being treated in hospital for the virus. This is a drop of 19 on yesterday.
The number of people being treated for Covid 19 in the country's ICU's is at its lowest level since early November.
The latest data shows 83 people are receiving critical care, a drop of one since yesterday.
Professor Anthony Staines of DCU says this level of infection won't result in herd immunity.
"There is no upside to having large numbers of cases. It doesn't look as if this is a virus that causes long-term immunity," says Staines
He says Ireland wasn't doing enough to control the Delta strain and simply wasn't ready for Omicron.
"As we see once we allow case numbers get completely out of control they're very hard to put back.
"We have hit an unfortunate European record, or close to it, because Omicron hit us at a time when we had very high transmission of Delta.
"So we weren't controlling Delta and Omicron came along," says Staines.
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