Non-essential retailers are opening today for the final time before closing for at least one month.
It comes as the country has officially entered its third lockdown.
Household visits are no longer permitted after the measure came in to effect at midnight last night.
Meanwhile, school holidays extended until the second week of January.
The measures will end on January 31st, while Taoiseach Micheal Martin says the government will take a cautious approach to lifting them.
Yesterday 1,718 new cases of Covid-19 were detected in the Republic, the highest figure recorded since the start of the pandemic.
The estimated national 14-day incidence rate of the disease is now 272, while Donegal and Monaghan have rates of more than 500 cases per 100,000.
Last night there were 466 people with the disease in the country's hospitals.
