Deputy Harkin is urging the Minister to open private hospitals to take the overflow.

Patients are being asked to consider consulting a pharmacist, a GP or attending a minor injury unit before going to an Emergency Department.

While the levels across all three counties are low, the number of people presenting with COVID or COVID-like symptoms to hospitals has risen since November

Nationally, 593 people are waiting at hospitals across the country.

The hospital has advised patients to come to appointments alone.

In some cases organs from autopsies carried out on children were kept for several years before being disposed of.

The public is also being asked to keep visits as short as possible

Nationally, the health service is dealing with 721 people with Covid in hospitals according to the latest HSE figures.