The number of Covid patients in hospital has reached its highest level in over 13 months.
There are 1,081 people being treated for the virus today - an increase of 34 from yesterday.
This is the highest figure since February 9th of last year.
There are 44 patients in intensive care with the virus.
Meanwhile, the Mater Hospital in Dublin is asking members of the public to avoid attending its Emergency Department (ED) as services are under "extreme pressure".
In a statement released on Wednesday morning, the hospital said people should "where possible" avoid the ED, explaining: "Hospital services are under extreme pressure due to a combination of a large number of people contracting Covid, high numbers of presentations at the ED and high levels of staff absences due to Covid-19."
Figures from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) show there were 454 people waiting for a hospital bed in hospitals around the country on Wednesday morning.
Of those, 369 were waiting on trolleys in an emergency department, while a further 85 were waiting in wards elsewhere in the hospitals.
University Hospital Limerick had the highest number of patients waiting for a bed (71), followed by University Hospital Galway (44) and Letterkenny University Hospital (37).
The INMO figures also show the Mater had 23 patients waiting on trolleys this morning, all of whom were in the hospital's ED.
The number of new coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 17 per cent in the last week, but Covid-19 infections rose, reversing a decline in cases that first began in January, according to the World Health Organisation.
In the UN health agency’s weekly report on the pandemic issued late on Tuesday, the WHO said there were more than 11 million new Covid infections last week – about an 8 per cent rise – and 43,000 new deaths.
The number of Covid deaths globally has been dropping for the past three weeks.
