Ireland recorded another 379 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, along with 12 further deaths.
The latest figures for the country were released this evening in a statement by the National Public Health Emergency Team.
In total, there have been 69,058 confirmed cases in the Republic, while the death toll now stands at 2,006.
Of those included in the latest number of infections, 174 were men and 203 were women.
The median age was 36, while 64% of new cases were recorded in people under the age of 45.
The news comes ahead of crunch talks between NPHET and the Government next week, which will ultimately decide the fate of the nation for the Christmas period.
But despite welcome news that retail outlets will likely be allowed to reopen, the Chief Medical Officer warned that he's "increasingly concerned" by rising cases in a number of counties over recent days.
Dr Tony Holohan said: "I am increasingly concerned that the positive trends we had seen recently have not been maintained.
"The 5-day moving average of daily cases has increased from an average of 350 cases on the 11 November to 424 today.
"We have two weeks to continue in our efforts to drive down community transmission of this disease as much as possible. The lower the incidence the more flexibility the country will have in easing measures."
Meanwhile, in some positive news, Pfizer has revealed that final results from the late-stage trial of its Covid-19 vaccine show it is 95% effective.
The drugmaker said efficacy of the vaccine developed with German partner BioNTech SE was consistent across age and ethnicity demographics, and that there were no major side effects, a sign that the immunization could be employed broadly around the world.
