A further 90 deaths and 928 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the Republic on Tuesday.
89 deaths occurred in January, while the date of one death remains under investigation. The ages of those who died range from 48 to 99 years old, while the median age is 83 years old.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, said the newly reported deaths brought the total toll in the Republic to more than 3,000.
“This highly infectious disease is having a severe impact on the most vulnerable in our society and we must continue the good work we are doing to suppress it," he said.
“The decline in daily incidence of Covid-19 has begun, however the volume of disease in our communities remains very high.”
Dr Holohan said more Covid-19 cases had been reported in the month of January than all of 2020.
“To date we have reported 96,000 cases in January 2021, which has already passed the total of 93,500 cases reported in 2020. Indeed, public health doctors in the Midlands reported a total of 4,000 cases in the first eight months of 2020 and another 4,000 cases in the first four weeks of 2021,” he said.
“Through our enhanced public health surveillance programme, we have identified six additional cases linked to the Southern African variant of concern. All cases are being followed up by public health teams.”
Of the cases notified on Tuesday, 50 per cent are under 45 years of age. There are 257 located in Dublin, 115 in Cork, 71 in Louth, 53 in Galway, 45 in Limerick and the remaining 387 cases are spread across all other counties.
As of 2pm, there were 1,750 Covid-19 patients hospitalised, with 216 people in intensive care units (ICU). 65 additional hospitalisations were seen in the past 24 hours.
In Northern Ireland, a further 16 people were confirmed to have died after testing positive for the disease, while 550 new cases were reported.
Hospitals in the region were operating at 95 per cent occupancy as of Tuesday afternoon, with 819 Covid-19 patients hospitalised, including 68 in ICU.
It comes as the country is set to remain under Level 5 lockdown restrictions until at least March 5th, the Taoiseach has confirmed.
Travel restrictions
Speaking at a Government briefing on Tuesday, Micheál Martin confirmed that Cabinet Ministers had also signed off on new restrictions on travel into the Republic amid the pandemic.
The Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, said it would now be "mandatory" for all arrivals into the State to quarantine for the first time — whether that be in designated hotels or their homes.
Until now, while advice has been for arrivals to self-isolate, it has had no legal basis.
Two-thirds of cases in Ireland can now be attributed to the more contagious UK variant, the Minister for Health said.
However, speaking at a briefing announcing the new travel restrictions, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste held that travel was responsible for no more than a small proportion of Covid-19 cases in the Republic.
The new measures come as the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 remains high, with more than double the number compared with the first wave last year.
HSE chief operations officer Anne O'Connor has said between 300 and 350 nurses have been redeployed to intensive care units while many hospitals are experiencing a crisis situation.
Ireland’s target remains to vaccinate every adult in the country by September, despite disruptions to the supply chain, the Seanad has heard.
Talks between the Department of Education and unions are also continuing this week, with hopes that schools will be able to reopen on a phased basis between February and March.
