The Department of Health has been notified of 8,910 PCR-confirmed cases of Covid-19, as well as 14,215 positive antigen tests logged through the HSE portal.
As of 8am, there were 1,425 Covid patients in hospital, up 30 on the same time yesterday morning. Of them, 53 patients were being treated in ICU, a decrease of two from Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said people should continue to be cautious and to wear masks in crowded situations, but that the current Covid wave was less "impactful" and virulent than earlier variants, so no new economic restrictions were warranted.
He said he had spoken to Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan in the past 48 hours and that was the advice.
Speaking in Brussels, Mr Martin said: "I spoke to the Chief Medical Officer in relation to this, and he's very clear the advice stays, he hasn't withdrawn the advice, in terms of the desirability of wearing masks in crowded situations, be it in public transport or in retail."
However, he added: "We had no basis for maintaining the legal requirement to do so given the public advice that we had received at the time, in terms of there not being a mandatory necessity for that."
The Taoiseach said there had been additional pressure on hospitals due to the fact that patients were presenting with other conditions but it had transpired they had Covid "which then puts pressure on in terms of isolation, the need to isolate them in hospitals."
Mr Martin, who was forced to remain in Washington after contracting the virus, said he was "feeling very good".
"I seem to have been lucky to get a lighter dose of the strain and I'm thankful for that. The message there really is - vaccination. I'm in no doubt that vaccination protected me from getting more severely ill as a result of Covid," he added.
Earlier, Health Service Executive Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor has said health service is "really struggling" due to the latest surge in Covid-19 cases.
"Whether it's in our hospitals, our community services, our national ambulance service, we are really struggling in terms of the level of Covid across services and across our staff," she told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland .
More than 21,000 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded yesterday and cases were up 29% in the last seven days, she said.
Ms O'Connor said about half of those in hospital at the moment have been admitted to hospital due to Covid.
Everyone with Covid has to be treated on a Covid ward and that restricts what care can be given for other medical issues, she explained.
"I think the real concern here is just the balance across our system in terms of people coming in with Covid and then people presenting in our emergency departments who are very sick and need different types of care," she said.
Ms O'Connor said the entire health service is being affected including care facilities, mental health services and disability services all being under "serious pressure".
The main issue is staff absences due to Covid infections, she said. As of yesterday, there were 5,200 staff members out on Covid leave.
Ms O’Connor said it is a capacity issue with the high number of people attending hospitals and the ability to cope with the surge in Covid infections.
Hospitals will be given direction from the HSE on cancellations of clinics and non-urgent procedures, she said, but hospitals have "no option" but to cancel procedures.
People will be contacted directly by hospitals if their appointment is cancelled, Ms O’Connor said.
"But it is clear to us that our hospitals cannot continue to do a lot of planned elective work, and we are seeing cancellations already, and we'll be writing to hospitals to say that we support them in doing that," she added.
Public health advice needs to be changed to encourage people to wear masks, DCU Professor of Immunology Christine Loscher has said.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne Prof Loscher said that people should be advised to wear masks indoors.
Children over the age of nine should be asked to wear masks again in schools, she said.
Professor Loscher said a combination of higher transmissibility of the latest variant, increased socialising and less mask wearing, are "'helping this surge along".
Additional reporting Tony Connelly
