66 new cases of Covid-19 in Kildare today

Hospitals in Northern Ireland and London are struggling to cope due to COVID-19 pressures.

Health Minister Robin Swann shared a statement from the chief executives of the hospital groups urging people to only go to emergency rooms if they need emergency care, and that patients will need to leave the hospital as soon as they are medically fit to do so.

The Department of Health in the North also confirmed that 1,205 people tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours.

Tony Holohan has said: "Unfortunately this evening we are seeing the effect of the recent surge of infections reflected in the increased mortality we are reporting".

The latest increase in the quantity of cases has been place down to a festive time maximize in socialising and the affect of the quickly transmissible British isles variant of the ailment.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn has said: "At least one in three patients admitted to hospital or critical care in January have been under the age of 65 years".

"We now have nearly the highest rate of Covid-19 on the planet, which is very worrying, and our rate has gone up much faster than other European countries".

Cork University Hospital has the largest number of Covid patients, with 135 hospitalised. "At the peak of the first surge there were 400 people in hospital so already we're in a very grave situation". The massive ask of everyone is to stay at house & assist get our hospitals & nursing houses again to safer amounts. "Every time we wash our hands, wear a face covering and keep a two metre distance from others, we are protecting the most vulnerable in our society and our frontline healthcare workers and giving all of us much needed additional time for more vaccines to be administered".

Ireland has only five intensive care beds per 100,000 people, much lower than the OECD22 average of 12, according to OECD data. There has been a total of 2,397 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.

It comes as six residents at Droimnín Nursing Home in Stradbally, Co Laois, died in the past week after contracting Covid-19, just days before they were due to receive their first dose of the vaccine.

Data had been submitted to European regulators for assessment.

He tweeted: "If authorised this vaccine will enable important scaling up of vaccination programme".