The Department of Health has today been notified of 744 new cases of Covid-19 and four additional deaths.
Of today's cases, 388 were men, 354 were women. 64 per cent were under the age of 45, with the median age of today's cases being 34-years-old.
There were 246 cases recorded in Dublin, 131 in Cork, 51 in Limerick, 40 in Wexford and 33 in Donegal. The remaining 243 cases are spread across 19 other counties.
As of 8am this morning, there were 324 patients being treated in hospital with Covid-19, 26 of whom were in Intensive Care Units.
Commenting on today's figures, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: "There have been further increases across key indicators of Covid-19 right across the country and the growth rate of the epidemic has accelerated in recent days."
Dr Holohan once again urged people to stay home and limit their interactions to drive down the transmission of the virus.
Yesterday, there were 1,296 new cases recorded in the Republic, the highest daily increase since the pandemic began back in March.
This comes as Ireland returns to the highest level of restrictions, with inter-county travel now reserved to essential purposes, such as providing care for someone, work, or education.
People who left their county to spend Christmas elsewhere will be permitted to return home after today, but once they return to their own county they should not leave again.
For the remainder of the year, households are permitted to have visitors from one other home, but from January 1st this will be reduced to zero household visits unless you qualify to form a support bubble with people from another home.
Following the arrival of the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine yesterday, HSE chief executive Paul Reid has said a small number of vaccinations may take place on Tuesday, December 29th, a day earlier than previously planned.
Earlier, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he was unsure as to why there was a delay between the arrival of the vaccine doses and the administration of the jabs, but said Ireland would catch up to other EU countries who have now started vaccinating.
