CEO of the Health Service Executive Paul Reid said there are over 200 staff off work at Letterkenny University Hospital due to Covid.
Visiting at the hospital has been suspended for a week due to an outbreak of the virus.
And Mr Reid said there is “no indication” that the country has reached the peak of the Omicron wave yet.
He instructed hospitals to prioritise both urgent care and Covid-19 care for the next two week and to scale back the provision of elective procedures.
He confirmed that the health service will use private hospital capacity for a certain amount of elective procedures but added that “we will have to suspend in many cases elective care”.
He said the steps are being taken to avoid the pressure which hospitals came under this time last year, when 2,020 people were being treated for the virus.
Regarding the number of frontline healthcare employees who are currently out of work, Mr Reid said the figure is likely over 6,000.
The HSE CEO said many hospitals, including Galway and Letterkenny, went from having 60 staff out of work and over a “two or three-day period” that figure rose to “200 or 240”.
As of 8pm last night there were 56 patients being treated for Covid at Letterkenny University Hospital.
