There have been 606 further confirmed cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) says two of these deaths occurred in March and one in February.
There has been a total of 4,631 COVID-19 related deaths and 232,758 cases in Ireland.
Of the cases notified today:
- 298 are men / 305 are women
- 75% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 33 years old
There are 249 cases in Dublin, 57 in Donegal, 39 in Kildare, 32 in Meath and 31 in Louth.
The remaining 198 cases are spread across all other counties.
As of 8.00am today, 312 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised - of which 75 are in ICU.
There have been 24 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
As of March 22nd, 690,449 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered - 503,796 fist doses and 186,653 second doses.
Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said: "The vast majority of people are making a huge sacrifice and missing time with loved ones in order for us to stay on course with the public health guidance.
"However, we know that in the week ending March 14th, approximately one-in-10 people visited another household for social reasons, with most of these visits involving time spent indoors.
"While this clearly demonstrates that the vast majority of people are sticking with the public health guidance, it does represent a significant change versus January when just one in 20 people were visiting other homes for social reasons.
"Please continue to stick with the public heath advice and avoid visiting other homes at this time – do not give this virus the opportunities it is seeking to spread."
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said: "We are experiencing a levelling off in the daily incidence rate of COVID-19 and the concern is that we could so easily move backwards and undo the progress that has been hard-earned since the beginning of the year.
"The pattern isn't entirely clear and continues to be volatile, so we'll be monitoring this quite carefully over the coming weeks.
"It is important to remember that when the infection gets into a household the transmission rates are very high – up to one-third of contacts within a household will subsequently become infected.
"It is critically important during this very volatile stage that we minimise our contacts where possible and follow public health advice."
And Dr Miriam Owens, director of public health at the HSE, said: "Today sees the opening of new walk-in test centres in areas of high transmission to enable increased ease of access to testing facilities for people who don’t have symptoms.
"If you do experience symptoms, I would encourage you to contact your GP to arrange a test as soon as possible.
"Together we can break the chains of transmission of this infection, by washing our hands, keeping a safe distance and by avoiding all non-essential activity where you are mixing with others."
