There have been 11 new deaths from Covid-19 recorded and 366 additional cases.
According to the Department of Health, the 11 deaths reported today all occurred in November.
The total number of cases in the Republic now stands at 68,686 and there have been 1,995 Covid-related deaths.
61 per cent of today's cases were under the age of 45, while 169 of the cases were male and 197 were female.
Dublin had the highest number of cases, recording 84, followed by 44 in Limerick, 34 in both Cork and Donegal and 24 in Roscommon.
The remaining 146 cases were spread across 20 other counties.
As of 2pm today, there were 272 patients with Covid-19 in hospital, 34 of whom were being treated in ICUs.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has said he is concerned the reduction in numbers after Level 5 measures were introduced has now slowed.
“I am increasingly concerned that the positive trends we had seen recently have not been maintained.
We have two weeks to continue in our efforts to drive down community transmission of this disease as much as possible
“The five-day moving average of daily cases has increased from an average of 350 cases on the November 11th to 424 today.
“We have two weeks to continue in our efforts to drive down community transmission of this disease as much as possible. The lower the incidence the more flexibility the country will have in easing measures,” Dr Holohan said.
Earlier today, a leading health expert cautioned against making any Covid-19 vaccine mandatory in Ireland.
Professor of Health Systems at DCU, Anthony Staines has said requiring people to be vaccinated may provoke those against the move.
His comments come after the British health Secretary refused to rule out the possibility of making it compulsory for people to get the vaccine in the UK.
"There is a small cohort of anti-vax people in our society, I think they are wrong in their belief, but they would use this as a reason to go on the warpath."
Christmas holidays
Also today, Minister for Education Norma Foley said there are no plans to extend the Christmas holidays for schools.
Ms Foley was asked if closing schools on December 18th instead of December 22nd as planned was an option to allow families more time safely visit loved ones while schools are closed.
Ms Foley said no extension to the holidays were planned at this time as children had already missed out on enough classes due to the pandemic.
In the North, there were 549 new cases of the virus and nine additional deaths reported in the past 24 hours.
