By Tomas Doherty
A further 28 deaths and 763 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the Republic.
Twenty-seven of these deaths occurred in February, and one in January.
Of the new cases, 251 were in Dublin, 84 in Galway, 57 in Kildare, 47 in Limerick, 42 in Waterford and the remaining 282 spread across all other counties.
The latest figures by the Department of Health, show 754 Covid-19 patients are in hospital, with 151 in intensive care.
Monaghan has the highest incidence rate in the country at 402 cases per 100,000, followed by Offaly at 373 and Dublin at 349.
The rate of Covid-19 has fallen in every local authority in Waterford except one according to the latest LEA breakdown.
Lismore saw a very slight increase, there were 17 cases of the virus confirmed between the 2nd and 15th of February, up from 15 a week ago.
This comes as Taoiseach Micheál Martin said “nothing is set in stone” in the Government’s plan for exiting the current lockdown.
Asked this evening whether there will be a nine-week extension of lockdown measures, Mr Martin said the Government will be “very cautious” in its approach.
Earlier Leo Varadkar sounded a warning that the reopening of any other parts of society or the economy could jeopardise the planned reopening of the education sector.
Schools and childcare will reopen on a phased basis next month after the State's public health experts gave the green light.
Mr Varadkar appealed to the public to “dig deep” for a few more weeks.
“We are on the right track again – cases, hospitalisations, ICUs numbers are all falling,” he told RTÉ.
“But they’re still high, they’re almost as high as they were at the peak of the first wave and that’s why we need to proceed with caution, particularly with the B117 variant dominant in the country.”
He said that 80,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines were administered this week, with a further 100,000 doses expected next week.
Mr Varadkar also denied that the Taoiseach said that Level 5 restrictions would last until May.
Mr Martin told the Irish Mirror in an interview on Thursday that “severe” lockdown measures will be in place until the end of April.
Mr Martin said the reopening of pubs restaurants, as well as hairdressers may be pushed further into the year.
Mr Varadkar said on Friday: “What the Taoiseach said last night is that we are facing into tough restrictions into April and that’s correct.
“He didn’t say that we will have Level 5 lockdown for nine weeks or that it’s going to go on until May.”
Mr Varadkar also denied there was a communications problem within the coalition Government.
“I think we have three government parties who are working very closely together and working better together than ever before, but what we are doing a lot of the time is communicating bad news and that can be difficult,” he said.
Meanwhile, a further five people have died with Covid-19 in the North, the region's Department of Health confirmed.
Another 313 cases were reported.
A total of 369 hospital beds in Northern Ireland are occupied by Covid-19 patients, with 49 in intensive care.
