A further 23 deaths from COVID-19 have been confirmed, along with 921 new cases of the virus.

Of the 23 deaths, 21 occurred in February and two in January.

This brings the total number of deaths here to 3,865.

Of the 921 new cases, 414 occurred in Dublin, 87 in Cork, 51 in Kildare, 48 in Limerick and 47 in Meath. The total number of cases now stands at 207,720.

As of 8am on Friday, there were 959 patients with confirmed COVID-19 in hospital, 173 of whom were in ICU. There had been an additional 53 hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of February 9, a total of 248,284 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered - 158,904 first doses and 89,380 second doses.

According to the Department of Health's deputy chief medical officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, while Ireland has made progress over recent weeks, the rate of transmission "is still extremely high".

"The risks COVID-19 poses to our vulnerable loved ones have not changed. Everyone is working hard to drive down COVID-19 infection in the community, and we must all continue to limit the number of daily contacts we have.

"The only way to limit the spread of COVID-19 is to limit our social contacts and follow the public health advice, wash our hands, maintain a social distance, wear a face covering where appropriate, work from home and stay at home," he commented.

Earlier, the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, added an additional 18 countries to the list of ‘high-risk' countries. Passengers arriving from these countries must complete a mandatory 14-day period of self-quarantine.

These rules have applied to people arriving from Brazil and South Africa since February 4, but the rules now also apply to people arriving from Angola, Austria, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Eswatini, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

"Under the current level 5 restrictions nobody should be engaging in non-essential travel at this time. These stringent measures on people arriving to Ireland from 20 states are necessary in responding to the risks posed by variants of concern.

"People who arrive in Ireland must now complete a full mandatory 14-day period of self-quarantine if they have been in any of these states in the previous 14 days. The Government will shortly consider legislation that will require such passengers arriving here to complete this quarantine at a designated facility," Minister Donnelly said.

The Cabinet is expected to consider legislation to enact mandatory quarantining at hotels early next week.

More information on the latest figures in relation to COVID-19, including the number of people vaccinated so far, is available here.