55 people are in ICU.
19,866 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed today.
There are 9,324 PCR-confirmed cases, while 10,542 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.
1,466 COVID-19 patients are in hospital, an increase of 41 on yesterday.
55 are in ICU, which is up by 2.
A World Health Organisation expert is calling for Irish people to wear face-masks in confined places again - like shops, some hospitality venues and public transport.
The mask mandate was dropped here nearly a month ago but Covid hospitalisations have more than doubled since then.
There were less than 600 people in hospital with Covidat the end of February.
Dr David Nabarro, the W-H-O's special envoy on Covid, says it's time to wear face-masks again:

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