There have been 6,843 further positive PCR tests of Covid-19 confirmed in Ireland today by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
An additional 5,295 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal on Tuesday.
There have been a total of 6,087 Covid-related deaths in Ireland to date, including 52 deaths newly notified in the past week.
The Department of Health says there are now 910 people in hospital, of which 90 are in ICU.
It comes as Transport Minister Eamon Ryan hinted that Ireland's Covid restrictions could be eased as soon as next week.
NPHET will hold crunch talks on the potential relaxing of certain measures on Thursday ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Friday.
A number of rules are expected to be lifted, including the 8pm closing time for hospitality which will instead likely be extended to midnight.
Changes to attendances at sporting events as well as weddings are also anticipated.
Minster Ryan also reiterated comments from Tanaiste Leo Varadkar that his “wish” was to set March 31 as a deadline to end almost all legal restrictions.
"Towards the end of next week, I expect we will see the start of restrictions being lifted," he told RTE on Wednesday.
"The timeline the Tanaiste said yesterday makes sense.
"The position we're in at the moment is a lot better than the one we were in a number of weeks ago, the numbers in ICU have held steady, the health consequences are still significant for some but not to the same level as previous variants.
"I think Omicron is on a downward spike. That will give us the chance to start lifting restrictions quickly and very widely. We will give people a number of days of advance notice."
He added that removing the 8pm closing time for pubs and restaurants would be one of the first decisions made by Cabinet.
"I'm hoping to see the 8pm curfew coming to an end. I think we need to start bringing our social life back," he said.
"That's important for our health and welfare. I think the likes of our sporting and cultural events, our artistic events - it makes sense to bring them back. In my mind, it's important that people who are working from home have the chance to get back into an office."
