There have been 429 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the Republic, according to the Department of Health.
There have also been one further death associated with the virus in the past 24 hours.
The latest figures bring the total amount of cases here to 76,185, while the number of coronavirus-related deaths stands at 2,124.
Of the latest cases, 66% are under 45 years of age, while the median age is 34 years old.
Regarding the nationwide distribution of cases, 122 are in Dublin, 46 in Donegal, 30 in Limerick, 22 in Laois, 20 in Cork and the remaining 189 cases are spread across all other counties.
198 are men and 230 are women.
As of 2pm today, 193 people are now receiving treatment in hospital for the virus after 13 new admissions in the past 24 hours.
Of those patients, 31 are in ICU, the same number as yesterday.
The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 of the population has risen to 84.3.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health said: “Today, I am concerned that we are seeing the incidence of COVID-19 rising again.
"429 is a large number of cases by the standard of recent weeks and the five-day moving average has now increased above 300 per day.
“Our efforts in Level 5 in recent weeks brought the 14-day incidence rate down to 78 per 100,000 population, put us in a position of having the lowest disease incidence in Europe and ultimately protected many people and saved many lives.
“Take today’s figures as a sign that we all must now reduce our social contacts, limit our interactions with those outside our households, weigh the risks of what socialising we are planning over the next two weeks, so that we can all have as safe a Christmas as possible.”
Main image: Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire/PA Images
