Ireland continues to battle with the coronavirus pandemic and it doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon.
The number of cases is rising fast yet again, and soon sadly will the number of hospitalisations and deaths.
However it's important to remember that it isn't all doom and gloom - and there are reasons to be optimistic.
Here are a few of them:
Christmas hope
Strict new measures could be on the way - particularly after NPHET on Thursday recommended that the government put in place a six-week Level 5 lockdown.
However, while this may sound very grim, health experts are insisting that this form of lockdown would effectively allow us to "save" Christmas.
Yesterday former Health Minister Simon Harris said that the new nationwide bans on household visits could be the "gamechanger" that may help in the effort to save the festive season.
He said "In an effort to be able to spend Christmas together, we do now need to cut out popping in for the cup of tea and that's tough.
"What we are trying to do here is make sure that people can have a Christmas.
"And make sure that we can try and get together in some capacity, in some way, with friends and family over Christmas.
"We genuinely believe if people take on board the advice now that we're asking, particularly in relation to household visits and working from home, we believe there's a potential for that to be a gamechanger.
"The prize here is big - it's actually being able to see family and friends again."
Vaccine timeline emerges
A number of vaccines are currently in final Phase Three trials, with widespread hope that we could even find out their effectiveness by the end of the year.
Pfizer, one of the companies leading the race to produce a vaccine, said today that they are targeting an emergency approval for late November, depending on the result of further testing.
And Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US doctor in the battle against Covid-19, believes some form of vaccine could be widely available by April.
Dr Fauci, a physician and immunologist whom you may have seen on the Late Late Show recently, believes an effective vaccine isn't far away.
He told CBS News on Wednesday that even if all vaccines in the final stages are deemed effective, the timeline for widespread vaccine administration would be towards the end of the first quarter of 2021.
There are now more than 170 teams across the world working on vaccines.
11 vaccines are currently in phase three of clinical trials and one step away from being approved.
19 vaccines are in phase two and in expanded safety trials.
Another 35 candidates are in phase one which are small scale trials and are some way away from being ready.
While 142 are in the pre-clinical stage and not yet ready for human trials.
