The country continues to grapple with its third and most severe wave of the virus - which saw over 8,000 new infections reported on Friday.
"The good thing about the South African variant is we know exactly where those cases came from, they have been contained, controlled and contact traced, and to the best of my knowledge there was no onward transmission." Those hospitals can increase ICU capacity safely to 375, the head of Ireland Health Service Executive said this week.
Some 119 people with coronavirus are being treated in intensive care units , up from 107 on Friday evening.It comes as a record daily total of 8,248 confirmed coronavirus cases were recorded in Ireland on Friday, along with 20 further deaths - the highest figure since May.
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