The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 5,265* PCR-confirmed cases of Covid-19.
In addition, on Wednesday 26 January, 4,673** people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.
As of 8am today, 708 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 71 are in ICU.
That represents a drop of 27 in hospital cases, with three fewer ICU cases than this time on Wednesday.
This positive update was issued by the WHO's Europe Director Hans Kluge this week who predicted that a future wave of the disease "could no longer require the return to pandemic-era, population-wide lockdowns or similar measures".
His comments were echoed by leading immunologist Prof Luke O'Neill who believes that the disease can cease to be a global health emergency this year.
The Trinity College professor said Covid-19 is "under control" as Ireland also approaches the "end game" with the virus.
Latest figures show that a total of 6,136 deaths related to Covid-19 have been reported in Ireland to date, including 49 deaths newly notified in the past week.
It comes as new data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre shows the counties that recorded the highest incidence rates of the virus per 100,000 of the population in the third week in January.
Westmeath is in the top spot, according to the latest HPSC data for the third week of this month from January 16 to January 22.
The county has an incidence rate of 4529.7 per 100,000 of the population.
Making up the top three Covid hotspots are Clare (2960.9) and Kildare (2904.2).
