Another 4,407 cases of Covid have been reported today making it almost 55,000 cases reported in the past 14 days.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said today that the “case level is unsustainable”.
There are now 614 people with Covid-19 are being treated in hospital with 114 in intensive care units.
Dr Holohan said the only time there have been more cases reported in a 14-day period was in January this year.
He added that this figure is expected to increase in the coming days.
“When incidence of disease is as high as this, we must all act as though we are close contacts and as though we are at risk of transmitting the virus to others,” he said.
Meanwhile, non-emergency services may be cancelled and the use of private hospitals expanded if Covid-19 case numbers continue to rise, the Health Service Executive’s Director of Acute Hospitals has said.
“There is no mitigation for an uncontrolled continuous growth of Covid within our health system,” said Liam Woods.
