9,591 new cases confirmed as ICU figures fall to lowest level since October

Hospitalisations climbed above 1,000 earlier in the month. File Picture: iStock

9591 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed this evening by Department of Health officials. 

5,109 of the new cases were notified through PCR testing, while the remaining 4,482 were reported through positive antigen test results uploaded to the HSE portal. 

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units (ICUs) has fallen to its lowest level of 2022.

As of 8am this morning, there were 69 people with the virus ICUs - two fewer than yesterday and the lowest figure since October 2021.

Overall, there were 707 Covid patients hospitalised this morning, a decrease of one on Thursday's total.

This number had risen to more than 1,000 earlier in the month during the peak of the Omicron wave.

Dr Denis McCauley, from the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) says the country is on the right track and believes the hospital figure will continue to decline.

The Omicron variant is very much more a community-based infection rather than a hospital-based infection," Dr McCauley said.

"I do think that it will continue to spread through the community. 

"I think unfortunately that there will be a subgroup of the immunocompromised on the people who are vaccinated that will continue to go into hospital.

"I think it will continue to fall, but I think there will be a background sickness, a background, significant illness and a background death that will continue for a while."

D McCauley added: "At the present, the news is good and bar a new variant coming, I think we are on the right track."