The Cabinet sub-Committee on Covid19 will meet today to discuss extending Level 5 Covid-19 restrictions into next month.
They will also look at proposals around travel, including five-day quarantine for people who arrive into the country without a negative PCR test.
It comes as 23 further deaths were announced last evening while 1,378 more people have tested positive for the virus – 21 in Carlow and 16 in Kilkenny.
Member of the National Public Health Emergency Team, Dr Mary Favier says its critically important employers allow their staff work from home to help slow the spread of the disease.
Hospitals
219 people with Covid19 were in Intensive Care Units in public hospitals last night, the highest since the pandemic began.
Three are being treated at the ICU at St Luke’s General for Carlow and Kilkenny, among 30 patients with Coronavirus there after three new admissions, while there’s one further suspected case at the local facility.
Nationally, in public hospitals there were 1,930 people with Covid19, with over 100 infected patients in nine different facilities.
132 people across the health system with the disease were on ventilators.
Pets
A group of scientists is warning dogs and cats could need a Covid19 vaccine in the future.
The team of experts from the UK and the US say a wide range of species – including pets – could possibly get the infection.
But they admit it’s “not an obvious risk yet.”