The Department of Health has confirmed 5,325 new cases of Covid-19.
They have been notified of 17 additional death related to the virus.
Of the cases notified today,2,5501 are men while 2,769 are women.
NEW: 5,325 new cases of #COVID19 and 17 further deaths
840 people in hospital with the virus & 76 in intensive care
— Stephen Murphy (@Stephen_Murphy5) January 5, 2021
Most people -63% - are aged under 45 years of age.
The median age is 36 years old.
Most cases of Covid-19 are in Dublin, where there are 1,931 cases.
Elsewhere, there are 767 new cases in Cork, 323 in Kildare, 322 in Limerick and 238 in Donegal.
The remaining 1,744 cases are spread across all other counties
Meanwhile, there have been 102 additional hospitalisations in the past twenty-four hours.
In total, there are 840 Covid-19 patients in hospitals - 76 of whom are in intensive care.
The 14 Day Incident Rate is estimated to be 674.4 per 100,000 population.
Efforts Must Continue To Reduce Hospital Admissions - CMO
The Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan said the rising number of hospital admissions can be prevented.
"We are now experiencing a considerable surge in cases and hospitalisations."
Dr Holohan said "We turn this around quickly if we stick to the measures we know worked last spring."
“We have seen some early progress in that the average number of contacts per case has been dropping in recent days...” @CMOIreland offering a slight positive trend. Urges people to maintain efforts to keep contacts down over the coming days and weeks.
— Andrew Lowth (@AndrewLowth1) January 5, 2021
While the CMO welcomed the reduced number of close contacts of confirmed cases, he urged the public to continue their efforts.
"If we all stay home and keep to the public health advice, we can bring COVID-19 back under control."
