Another 17,071 cases of Covid confirmed with more than 700 in hospital with virus

The Department of Health said that 87 of the 717 hospitalised are currently in ICU.

New data forecasts provided to hospitals late last week suggested Covid-related admissions could treble over the next two weeks, but fewer patients will need to enter ICU.

The modelling shows 1,600 people could be in hospital with Covid-19 in mid-January and 200 in ICU in a pessimistic scenario. The new figures reflect the latest science that suggests Omicron causes milder illness than other variants.

Earlier today HSE chief Paul Reid tweeted: “Early days yet, but let's all hope & plan that with the great efforts of the public, our testers & tracers, vaccination teams & all healthcare professionals will mean that at some stage we can all look back on #Omicron. We're not there yet but these actions will benefit”.

More to follow…