THERE ARE NOW 581 patients with Covid-19 being treated in hospital, with an extra 73 people being admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours.

This is the highest level of Covid-19 hospital admissions recorded in Ireland, with the number of patients in hospital at the highest level since 11 May.

Alongside this, there are 56 patients being treated in ICU, with a further 10 admissions in the last 24 hours. There has been one patient discharged in the same period.

All data is available on the government’s Covid-19 Data Hub, with figures correct as of 8am this morning.

In a tweet, HSE chief Paul Reid confirmed the figures and said that it is likely that Ireland has not seen the worst impacts yet.

We now have 581 #COVID19 patients in hospital. There are 50 people in ICU. We have likely not seen the worst impacts yet. But everything we do today to stop this virus spreading makes a huge difference. Please let's all play our part to protect our health service.@HSELive

— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) January 2, 2021

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, has said that positive tests, cases and hospitalisations are now doubling every seven to 10 days.

Stay home. 581 people in hospital with COVID-19 this morning, up from 255 on 24 December. Positive tests, cases and hospitalisations are doubling every 7-10 days. We can stop this, but it's essential that each and every one of us plays our part to turn the tide. Stay home. pic.twitter.com/vGHYu5ehKF

— Professor Philip Nolan (@President_MU) January 2, 2021

Yesterday, public health officials confirmed that there were an additional 1,754 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Ireland.

Alongside this, an additional 11 deaths from Covid-19 were reported in a statement from NPHET.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said that he was concerned with the number of patients being admitted to hospital with Covid-19.

“The most concerning trend at present is the rapidly increasing number of people being admitted to hospital – we are now admitting between 50 – 70 people a day to our hospital system. Unfortunately, we expect this to get worse before it gets better. Our health system will not continue to cope with this level of impact.”