There is further concern today with the confirmation that there has been 13,765 new cases of Covid.
It overtakes yesterday’s record of 11,182 cases.
There are 378 people in hospital with the virus with 87 of these in ICU.
Department of Health has said in anticipation of large volumes of case numbers over the coming period the daily case number announced will be based on positive SARS-CoV-2 results uploaded to the HSE Covid Care Tracker the preceding day.
They added that the data is provisional.
The Department of Health estimates that 83% of those are now attributable to the Omicron variant.
Meanwhile, the Health Service Executive has said Covid-19 vaccination clinics around the country are closed for Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day.
However, PCR testing will continue to be offered this weekend although there will be a slightly reduced level of service.
Vaccination centres will resume service on Monday 27 December.
