More than 220 people remained on trolleys in hospital accident and emergency units around the State yesterday awaiting admission to beds, the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) has claimed.
The INO said the worst over-crowding was at Tallaght Hospital where 45 people were on trolleys, including nine in the day ward.
These were down on figures earlier in the week when, according to the INO, overcrowding in A&E units reached record levels.
At one stage in recent days, the numbers awaiting admission to hospital beds around the State reached more than 400, the INO said.
The organisation said there were 24 patients on trolleys at Beaumont Hospital yesterday, 22 in the Mater and 17 in St Vincent's University Hospital.
Outside of Dublin there were 18 patients on trolleys in Cork University Hospital and 17 in the Mercy Hospital, also in Cork city.
There were 11 patients awaiting admission to beds in the South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel.
Health authorities in the west apologised to the families of five patients who had to receive emergency medical treatment in the grounds of University College Hospital Galway because the A&E department was full.
Up to five patients had to receive treatment on beds in ambulances parked outside the A&E building.
Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent, adds: A young teenager is one of two people to have died from influenza in recent weeks according to the latest flu report from the National Disease Surveillance Centre.
The child, who had a long-term medical condition, died in early December, according to the centre. It is understood the child had cerebral palsy.
Medical sources said last night that the existence of a long-term chronic medical condition in a child would put them at higher risk from the complications of influenza.
They emphasised that the risk of death from influenza for a healthy child was very low.
A person over the age of 64 died of influenza in the first week of January.
Both victims had influenza A, one of three strains of the virus. It is understood that the sub-types of influenza A isolated from the victims are covered by the vaccine administered to patients during the current flu season.
The disease surveillance centre report says that so far this season, 21 influenza A (H1N1), two influenza A (H3N2) and 67 influenza A (unsub-typed) viruses have been detected in specimens sent to the National Virus Reference Laboratory.
Only two of these cases occurred in patients aged 64 or over, an indication of the success of immunising older people against flu each year.
The fact that none of the sub-types of influenza was similar to the H5N1 type identified in avian flu outbreaks in south-east Asia is also seen as reassuring.
Centre director Dr Darina O'Flanagan said: "If you are in an at-risk group it is not too late to get vaccinated."
