The Department of Health has reported 47 further deaths of people with Covid-19 and 631 new confirmed cases.
Of the deaths announced today 14 occurred in March, 18 in February and 15 in January.
The median age of those who died was 83 and the age range was 60-95 years.
There has been a total of 4,499 Covid-19 related deaths and 224,588 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland.
As of 8am today, there were 370 people in hospital with Covid-19, with 31 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
There are 92 people in intensive care with the virus, down three on yesterday.
Of today's cases, 317 are men and 308 are women, 74% of whom are under 45.
The median age is 29.
Dublin accounted for 247 of the cases notified today, there were 50 in Kildare, 44 in Meath, 41 in Cork, 32 in Limerick and the remaining 217 cases were spread across 20 other counties.
Figures released earlier showed that despite a significant rise in outbreaks of Covid-19 last week, no outbreaks were reported in schools last week, following the return of around 32,000 pupils on 1 March.
This included more than 260,000 junior primary school children, as well as 60,000 Leaving Certificate students.
An outbreak or a cluster is where there has been two or more linked cases of laboratory confirmed Covid-19, or where there has been one case of the virus and at least one additional case of illness with symptoms consistent with Covid-19, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
Figures from the HSPC show that there were 431 outbreaks reported in the week to last Saturday, compared with 367 the previous week.
The centre said the report published today contains 141 late outbreak reports from October, December and January.
The biggest rise was in private house/family outbreaks, with 259 were reported, compared with 128 the previous week.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said this week that the rise in private house/family outbreaks was down to better tracking and tracing by public health teams now that daily case numbers are reducing, rather than a sudden spike.
Outbreaks in hospitals and workplaces also reduced significantly.
Health Service Executive CEO Paul Reid said the impact of the vaccination roll-out is being seen, with deaths, infections and transmission levels all down, along with the number of hospitalisations and patients in ICUs.
So far, great signs of the impacts of vaccinations. Serial testing in nursing homes at 0.2% positivity. Percentages of cases in healthcare workers down from 16% to 4%. Mortality, infections and transmissions levels down, along with hospitalisations and ICU. @HSELive #COVID19
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) March 10, 2021
The downward trend is also reflected in the daily Covid-19 case numbers, with 311 cases reported yesterday, the lowest daily figure since mid-December.
The Department of Health has said that as of 6 March 523,069 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland, with 9,747 doses administered on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a further eight coronavirus deaths have been recorded in Northern Ireland during the past 24 hours, which is the highest number of deaths on a single day since the middle of last month and takes the official Department of Health toll to 2,087.
There are 147 new cases from tests on 1,710 individuals.
There are 212 confirmed Covid-19 patients in hospital, with 29 in ICU, 19 of whom are on ventilators.
The average seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 for Northern Ireland is 64.6.
The area with the highest rate is Mid Ulster on 80.7, while the lowest remains Fermanagh and Omagh on 33.4.
Covid 'almost disappeared' as serious illness in nursing homes - Henry
The HSE's Chief Clinical Officer has said that Covid-19 has almost disappeared as a serious illness in nursing homes and residential centres as the impact of the vaccination programme is being seen across the country.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Dr Colm Henry also said the number of healthcare staff testing positive has collapsed.
He said 1,000 healthcare staff tested positive in the week ending 17 January and this fell to under 45 testing positive in the week ending 28 February.
Dr Henry said the country is beginning to see the real impact of the vaccination programme on the most vulnerable and in terms of the most serious manifestation of the illness among this population.
He said there were some problems with the roll-out of vaccines in the third week to the over 85s, and the HSE is working closely with GP practices to ensure these problems do not happen again.
Hope for return of indoor visits in nursing homes
The CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland said he is hopeful that the National Public Health Emergency Team will support an "incremental cautious approach" to the return of indoor visits to nursing homes.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One news, Tadhg Daly said he expected a decision from NPHET on the matter tomorrow evening and that revised guidance would be published next week.
Mr Daly said his organisation had made a submission to NPHET which proposed a range of measures including infection control and possible antigen testing.
He said vigilance would need to be maintained, but he said he would be hopeful that residents could see their family in person in the coming weeks. He said that clearly, there would be more movement in areas where a large number of residents and staff have been vaccinated than those areas where fewer people had been vaccinated.
Mr Daly said it was important to note that despite vaccination, a person can still contract and transmit the virus and infection control measures would be in place. He said visits would have to be booked and the wearing of masks would be recommended.
Earlier, Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman said the Government will have to "tailor" the lessening of restrictions in conjunction with the degree of the population that has been vaccinated.
He said while real progress has been made, the vaccination programme is a key element in ensuring Level 5 measures are reduced.
Mr O'Gorman also said it is "deeply frustrating" that the commitments made by pharmaceutical companies regarding vaccine supply are not being met.
Assistant Secretary General at Department of the Taoiseach Liz Canavan has said authorities are hearing reports that house parties, street parties and other parties are being organised to mark St Patrick's Day and warned that these breaches of current restrictions will result in a fine and or prosecution.
At the Government Covid-19 briefing, she said "flouting the guidance would be a blatant disregard for all we have endured to this point".
She said "it puts lives at risk, it puts the rollout of our vaccination programme at risk and ultimately, it puts our progress on the path to recovery at risk."
She urged people to mark the day in other ways and said the St Patrick's Festival will be broadcast on Oireachtas TV for six days and nights.
Additional reporting Fergal Bowers
