The COVID-19 death toll in Ireland has passed 3,000, with 90 more deaths reported on Tuesday.
Latest figures also show there are 928 new confirmed cases of the virus here, with six linked to the South African variant.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) says 89 deaths occurred in January.
The median age of those who died is 83 years, and the age range is between 48 and 99 years.
There has been a total of 3,066 COVID-19 related deaths and 189,851 confirmed cases in Ireland.
This includes the denotification of one death - while the date of death of another person is under investigation.
Of the cases notified on Tuesday:
- 418 are men / 506 are women
- 50% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 44 years old
Some 257 cases are in Dublin, 115 in Cork, 71 in Louth, 53 in Galway and 45 in Limerick.
The remaining 387 cases are spread across all other counties.
As of 2.00pm, 1,750 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised - of which 216 are in ICU.
There have been 65 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, said: "Today we are reporting a further 90 deaths, bringing our cumulative total of lives lost to COVID-19 to more than 3,000 in Ireland.
"This highly infectious disease is having a severe impact on the most vulnerable in our society and we must continue the good work we are doing to suppress it."
He added: "The decline in daily incidence of COVID-19 has begun, however the volume of disease in our communities remains very high.
"To date we have reported 96,000 cases in January 2021, which has already passed the total of 93,500 cases reported in 2020.
"Indeed, public health doctors in the midlands reported a total of 4,000 cases in the first eight months of 2020 and another 4,000 cases in the first four weeks of 2021.
"Through our enhanced public health surveillance programme, we have identified six additional cases linked to the Southern African variant of concern.
"All cases are being followed up by public health teams in line with the latest ECDC guidance published on the 21st January."
"The downturn in incidence has been achieved through the determination of people across the country to stay at home, to work from home and to avoid meeting and socialising with others.
"It is imperative that everyone continues to strictly adhere to the public health advice to protect ourselves and our loved ones from this highly-infectious disease."
He was speaking after the Government extended level five coronavirus restrictions until March 5th.
All current level five restrictions are being extended, with a clampdown on unnecessary international travel.
