The Chief Medical Officer says it's unlikely we'll avoid a significant surge of Covid-19 in early January.
Public health officials don't believe daily case numbers will fall any further this side of Christmas.
The 7 day incidence rate increased by 13% over the course of the last week, with 242 new cases confirmed yesterday evening.
Dr Tony Holohan says the level of socialisation over Christmas will likely lead to a challenging level of disease in the New Year.
"It's more likely than not that the level of socialisation that we'll see will lead to a challenging level of transmission in the early weeks of January - even though we believe there are measures we can recommend, which we are recommending to the general public to take to minimise the risk of that.
"If we're asking ourselves honestly how likely it is do we think we might avert a significant surge of the infection in January, it's probably more likely than less likely."
