LATEST: Half million people across country may have caught Covid last week – Holohan

A further 19,290 people have contracted Covid-19 over the past 24 hours, the Department of Health confirmed this evening.

And there are now 1,062 people being treated in hospital for the virus, a drop of one since yesterday. Of these, 92 patients are now in ICU, a rise of three.

However, these and earlier figures may just be the tip of the iceberg of overall infections driven by the Omicron variant, according to the Chief Medical Officer.

In a letter to Health Minister Stephen Donelly, Dr Tony Holohan said up to half a million people may have been infected in Ireland over the past week.

It comes a day after Ireland passed one million Covid cases since the start of the pandemic.