The Health Minister is expected to update senior ministers later this morning on the overcrowding issues facing Irish hospitals.
It comes after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation counted 931 people on trolleys yesterday, a new record.
Minister Stephen Donnelly says despite calls from the INMO to reintroduce a mask mandate, public health advice is unlikely to change.
Advertisement
However he admits the wave of flu infections is expected to get worse, before it gets better.