Dr Tony Holohan warns hospitals are under pressure due to Covid-19

In a letter sent to the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnolly Holohan outlined the continued threat of the Covid-19 virus.

At the time there were 355 people in hospital with Covid, as of Saturday morning, there are 537 people in hospital with the virus.

4,702 new cases of Covid have also been confirmed.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Jack Lambert told Newstalk that there will be fluctuations in the number of Covid cases moving forward.

"We are going to have expected increases in numbers due to the seasonality of Covid moving forward.”

"We have seen it in other countries, there are periods where the numbers drop off and periods when new strains come into the country and increase again,” he said.

Over 1.5 million cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in Ireland since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.