The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 5,634 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
As of 8am today, 684 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 126 are in ICU.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “Incidence of COVID-19 is continuing to rise, and today, we are once again reporting a concerning number of confirmed cases.
"We know that every 1000 cases of COVID-19 will lead to 20-25 people in hospital and between 2-3 people requiring critical care in ICU. We also know that, since June of this year, 1 in 4 people who had COVID-19 and required critical care in our hospitals have sadly passed away.
"This information is not easy to hear, but it is an important reminder of the serious risk that COVID-19 continues to pose to all of us."
The news comes as Dr Holohan insisted that there is not a set figure of Covid cases or hospitalisations in the minds of officials that would lead to additional rules being introduced.
NPHET will hold crunch discussions on Thursday amid the surge in transmission of the virus nationwide.
Public health officials will examine the impact of introducing further restrictions last week, as well as the possibility of additional measures before Christmas.
The Chief Medical Officer said it will take a while to see how much the new rules will have helped in curbing the spread of the disease.
He said that further booster jabs may be needed in the future, but in the immediate term, the high number of cases needs to reduce.
"In relation to immunisation, we hope, but we will need the longitudinal studies, that the benefit of a boost to the population will last longer than the initial vaccination," he said.
"But there is a possibility we will require further boosters down the line.
"We do need to get the levels of transmission back down to a point where our public health system can at an earlier stage pick up a local surge in the disease and set up a localised response to control and limit the spread of that infection."
