2,180 more people have tested positive for Covid-19 -- the most new infections reported in one day since late January.
406 people are being treated in hospital for the virus, 71 of them receiving intensive care.
Tony Canavan, chief executive of the Saolta Hospital Group, says there's a simple explanation for rising infection numbers:
"There's a greater level of social activity [...] Where there's greater movement and mixing of people, there's more opportunity for Covid to be transmitted."
An Intensive Care consultant says it's very frustrating to see unvaccinated patients on ventilators sick with Covid.
71 are being treated in intensive care with with virus - two thirds of whom are reported to be unvaccinated.
The HSE is operating walk-in vaccination clinics this weekend, as 300-thousand adults are still unvaccinated and 70-thousand have only had their first jab.
Former President of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, Dr. Catherine Motherway, says they're seeing young people very sick from Covid who are unvaccinated:
"When you see a young person very sick on a ventilator, that you are fairly confident could've been prevented by a vaccination, it's very hard to watch [...] We're seeing late teens on an ICU."
A rose bush in memory of all of the lives lost to Covid on the island of Ireland is planted at the Memorial Gardens in Dublin.
Pictured: Eileen Finucane - who lost her partner Seamus to COVID, alongside Dr Catherine Motherway and Dr Patrick Seigue, pic.twitter.com/xXa5G59n5Y— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) September 3, 2021
