The Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory has said it is inevitable that a variant of the virus which was first detected in the UK will become the dominant variant here over time.
Dr Cillian De Gascun said the virus has adapted and is better at moving from person to person, making it all the more important that people keep their distance.
There are 186 patients with Covid-19 in intensive care this morning. The majority of these, 22, are in St James's Hospital in Dublin.
There are 1,872 people with coronavirus across the Irish hospital system. Most are in Cork University Hospital (152), followed by University Hospital Limerick (139) and St Vincent's Hospital Dublin (134).