484 new cases were confirmed last night including 40 in Cork.
Three additional deaths were also reported.
The reproduction rate of the virus is now between 1.1 and 1.3 but could be higher.
Professor Philip Nolan, chair of NPHET's modelling advisory group, says there's a high risk of a surge in January - but it's not inevitable:
"It's a very clear warning sign of whatever we were doing between about the 1st and 7th of December. It's too much. So that first week of December was too much social mixing, and here we are now. The emphasis is we need to stop now in order to protect where we're going to be seven to ten days from now."
