There have been 23,125 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Ireland.
Latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) show there were 8,910 PCR-confirmed cases of the virus.
While, on Wednesday, 14,215 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.
Based on these figures, the five-day moving average of cases has jumped to 18,691.
As of 8.00am Thursday, 1,425 people were hospitalised with the virus - of whom 53 were in ICU.
It comes as Professor Luke O'Neill says the virus should be viewed as a 'severe flu' that will be with us into the future.
He earlier told The Pat Kenny Show: "It's just another infectious disease that's with us, basically, it won't go away.
"It's like TB infecting humans many hundreds of years ago, became a new disease, and then TB was there forever really.
"These coronaviruses will be with us into the future - including SARS-CoV-2 - so now the talk is how do we prepare for this and make sure we can keep it under control?"
He added: "You've got to think of it now, if you're vaccinated and you catch it - or a new variant that comes along - you'll have potentially a very severe time with it.
"And of course that means hospitalisation, and our current concern is the increased numbers ending up in hospital.
"But at the moment we have to view it as a serve flu that will be with us into the future".
