THERE ARE NOW 1,919 people with Covid-19 in Irish hospitals, according to the latest data from the Covid-19 Data Hub.

There have been 135 admissions and 140 discharges in the past 24 hours.

Of that number there are now 210 people in ICU, with 19 people admitted in the past 24 hours and eight people discharged.

Yesterday, 93 people with Covid-19 were confirmed to have died; 89 of these deaths occurred in January.

There were 2,001 cases reported, bringing the total to 176,839.

Testing

In the last 24 hours there have been 18,559 Covid tests completed, and 159,613 in the last seven days.

A total of 2.8 million Covid tests have been carried out, and 181,942 have been positive for Covid-19.

The 14-day incidence rate is 1,334.6 cases per 100,000 population. Counties Monaghan, Louth and Waterford are the three counties with the highest incidence rates.

Dr Tony Holohan

In a statement, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan 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.”