There have been 55 further deaths and 827 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed in the Republic on Saturday.
36 of these deaths occurred in February and 18 occurred in January, while the date of one death remains under investigation.
The median age of those who died is 86 years old, while the ages of those who died range from 49 to 100.
Of the new cases notified on Saturday, 63 per cent are under 45 years of age.
There are 20 cases in Waterford, 297 cases in Dublin, 76 in Cork, 56 in Galway, 46 in Wexford, 37 in Kildare and the remaining cases are spread across all other counties.
There have been 586 cases of the virus reported in Waterford over the past 14 days, and the incidence rate in Waterford is now 504.4.
As of 2pm this afternoon, there were 1,177 Covid-19 patients hospitalised, including 177 in intensive care units. Some 29 additional hospitalisations were seen in the past 24 hours.
In a statement issued on Saturday, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan urged those experiencing symptoms of the disease to contact their GP as soon as possible.
“There are a few old habits that collectively we have to break in order to suppress Covid-19 together. We know that people who feel unwell typically avoid calling their GP over the weekend, and wait to see if they improve,” Dr Holohan said.
“You should no longer do that — you must phone your GP at the first sign of anything like Covid-19 symptoms. Do not adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach.
“Similarly, do not leave your house or go to work if you have any cold or flu like symptoms at all. Breaking these habits will limit Covid-19’s opportunity to spread from person to person.”
Vaccine rollout
It comes as the first 21,600 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine arrived in the Republic on Saturday.
The doses were delivered into the national cold chain store in Dublin from Belgium earlier in the afternoon.
The Health Minister has said the first doses will be distributed to healthcare workers from Monday.
Meanwhile, under revised plans agreed by the HSE and Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), those aged over 70 are set to begin receiving the Pfizer and Moderna jabs from GPs from February 15th.
