Health officials have announced a further 1,361 COVID cases this evening.
This morning, there were 160 patients in hospital – up eight on yesterday and 68% on last week.
There were still 26 in hospital, which is three more than last week.
The five-day moving average has increased slightly to 1,272.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said Ireland will not have a UK-style ‘freedom-day,’ noting that the pandemic is more likely to “peter out over time” - playing down hopes that restrictions could be eased faster than planned.
Last night, the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said Ireland may be able to do away with more restrictions in a matter of weeks, due to the success of the vaccine programme.
Mr Martin said restrictions had already been eased "quite substantially" – and insisted that caution is still needed.
He also told reporters that a quarter of a million children could be vaccinated by the time they go back to school.
Meanwhile, the Government is planning to increase crowd sizes at sporting events ahead of the All-Ireland semi-finals and finals.
