A further four deaths and an additional 3,394 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed this evening by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).
It means there has been a total of 2,252 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
With tonight's figures, there is now also a total of 96,926 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland.
There are currently 607 people in hospital with the virus and a further 56 people who are in ICU, according to Nphet.
The Department of Health said of the cases notified today: 1,619 are men and 1,766 are women, 65 per cent are under 45 years of age and the median age is 35 years old.
In terms of the location of tonight's cases: there are 389 in Cork, 355 in Dublin, 339 in Donegal, 258 in Louth, 233 in Mayo and the remaining 1,820 cases are spread across all other counties.
Spirit of solidarity
Speaking about tonight's surge in cases, Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer said: “The incidence of Covid-19 is as high, if not higher now than it was in March.
“Every individual needs to act as if they are infectious. Hospitalisations are rising to levels close to what we saw in the springtime. Everyone needs to stay at home other than for essential work or care.
“It is really important that vulnerable and older people do not leave their homes unless absolutely essential. This includes asking neighbours or family to carry out errands such as grocery shopping, limiting all contacts to only those people you live with or have to visit for essential care reasons.”
He said we need to rediscover the spirit of solidarity and community we saw back in March and April, so everyone can do their part to protect older and vulnerable people.
Dr Holohan added “People particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 include older persons and people with pre-existing medical conditions including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer.”
It comes as nine more cases of the new strain of Covid-19 first discovered in Britain were detected in the Republic.
As the Irish Times reports, Dr Cillian De Gascun, the director of the UCD National Virus Reference Laboratory, said that testing of samples dating from December 23rd to 29th had found nine further cases of the more infectious variant.
He said this brought the total number of cases identified by the laboratory to 16, out of 169 tested to date.
