Tánaiste: Ireland could return to a version of level 4 restrictions after 5th of March

Level 4 allows people to travel within their own counties, and permits outdoor dining. 

NPHET will meet this morning to consider the current situation, with 54 Covid deaths and 1,335 new cases reported yesterday.

The number of people being treated for the virus at Cork University Hospital fell by 5 to 107 patients yesterday.

However the number of people in the ICU has increased from 16 to 18.

Dr Alan Gaffney, vice-president of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, says the situation is improving in ICUs:

"Yeah, I think we're starting to see the numbers in ICU reaching a plateau, it does leave us just within our maximum surge capacity across the whole system, and there are individual units who have actually reached or even exceeded their surge capacity and in these particular units, those patients have been transferred to other hospitals across the country to try to help those units that are under more pressure, by being at or above their surge capacity."