Coronavirus Ireland: 2,121 new cases, 8 further deaths

All 8 deaths occurred in this month, bringing the death toll to 2,616.

The median age of those who died is 85 years and the age range is 49-93 years.

There is now a total of 174,843 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today, 753 are in Dublin, 236 in Cork, 142 in Wexford, 126 in Kildare, 109 in Limerick and the remaining 755 cases are spread across all other counties.

As of 2pm today, 1,975 Covid-19 patients are in hospital - 200 of which are in intensive care.

Chief Medicial Officer, Dr Tony Holohan again urged the public to stay at home as hospital admissions continue to grow.

“This third wave of the pandemic has seen higher level of hospitalisations across all age groups," he said.

"There are now more sick people in hospital than any time in the course of this pandemic. The risk that this disease poses to the individual who is infected has not changed.

"What has changed is that we are experiencing a much greater level of community transmission and as a result we are seeing higher numbers of people with severe illness who require hospitalisation or admission to intensive care and higher numbers of mortality.

"Please continue to stay at home and drive down this infection in our community.”

Dr Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer, added: “Our survey data indicates that 60pc report contacting older relatives and friends to ensure they are okay.

"Providing support and reassurance to older and more vulnerable members of society is an important part of our collective response to this pandemic. Our sense of community and support for each other must remain a key part of our armoury against Covid-19.”

It comes as Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has again urged employers to help their staff work from home.

The Minister said there are concerns over the volume of traffic on the roads in recent weeks.

Workers should stay at home where possible in an effort to flatten the curve, Mr Harris added.

"The Government and health advice could not be clearer. We want people to stay at home and work from home," he said.

“I will be dialling into Cabinet meeting tomorrow. We need to do everything we can to stay indoors as much as possible.

“It’s really important employers get that message and I think many of them have. It’s good for their business because the more we stay at home, the more we flatten the curve and the more we get out of this third wave.

“Some of the traffic levels we have seen – there have been times where there has been too much traffic on the road. Gardai had a very busy weekend in Wicklow turning people away and issuing fines.”