The number of people with COVID-19 in hospital has fallen by almost a quarter since the start of the month.
The latest figures show 208 patients are being treated in hospitals nationwide, including 51 in intensive care units.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid says the country could be on "a good trend" with the effect of vaccines reducing sickness levels for the most vulnerable.
He said the figures represented a "good start to the weekend" with "the light is shining a little brighter for now".
Meanwhile, more than one million doses of the vaccine against coronavirus have been administered in Ireland to date.
Data shows that as of Thursday, 716,636 people had received their first dose of the inoculation.
A second dose has been given to 301,628 people, representing 6.1% of the total population.
Over a seven-day period, the daily average of jabs administered was 17,841.
Vaccines administered by type 💉
‣ Pfizer: 746,427
‣ AZ: 225,327
‣ Moderna: 46,510— COVID-19 Data Ireland (@COVID19DataIE) April 10, 2021
It comes as four new walk-in COVID-19 testing centres are opening across the country today.
The facilities are in Mulhuddart and Ballyfermot in Dublin, St Joseph's Health Campus in Limerick City and WIT College Street Campus in Waterford.
The HSE is aiming to carry out 300 to 500 tests per day at each walk-in centre.
There were 473 new cases of coronavirus confirmed in Ireland yesterday.
34 additional deaths related to COVID-19 were also reported - three of which occurred in April, four in March, 19 in February, five in January and three in December or earlier.
Last night, the Cabinet agreed to add 16 states to the list of high-risk countries subject to mandatory hotel quarantine amid concerns over COVID-19 rates and variants.
People arriving from countries including the US, France and Italy will face mandatory quarantine from next week, with the rules coming into effect from 4am on Thursday.
The new regions added are Bangladesh, Belgium, France, Italy, Kenya, Luxembourg, Pakistan, Turkey, the USA, Canada, Armenia, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Curaçao, Maldives and Ukraine.
