Ireland has recorded its highest daily number of Covid-19 fatalities since the pandemic began.
Ninety-three more people with Covid-19 have passed away, NPHET reports.
Three of the newly-recorded deaths took place in December, 89 were in January and one remains under investigation. The youngest person was 41 and the oldest was 99.
Another 90 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Donegal.
Nationally, there are 2,001 new cases of the virus.
As of 2pm today, 1,949 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 202 were in ICU at 11am. There have been 100 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Letterkenny University Hospital recorded its highest number of Covid-19 patients yesterday, with 120 people hospitalised with the virus.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: “While we are starting to see the early results of our collective efforts to minimise the transmission of the virus, we are very sadly reporting an additional 93 deaths today. We cannot afford to drop our guard against the very high levels of infection that remain in the community at present.
“COVID-19 ICU and hospitalisation numbers are of critical concern to us, representing a very significant pressure on our healthcare workers and on the provision of acute medical and surgical non-COVID care.
“We need everyone to stay at home, other than for essential reasons. The more that each individual follows this advice in their everyday lives, the more we can drive down the spread of COVID-19 and minimise the impact on vital healthcare services, patients and frontline workers.”
