Dr Tony Holohan has issued a dramatic message to the nation as Covid-19 cases continue to soar.
The Chief Medical Officer said we are seeing a "considerable surge" in both cases and hospitalisations.
However he added that there had been some "early progress" as the number of close contacts has fallen.
It comes after a total of 5,325 new infections were reported across the country on Tuesday, while 17 more people have died.
Dublin was once again the hardest-hit region with 1,931 new infections, followed by Cork with 767.
While there was 323 new cases in Kildare, 322 in Limerick, 238 in Donegal and the remaining 1,744 cases are spread across all other counties.
And the CMO has issued a stark warning as he called on everyone to limit their social contacts as much as possible.
Dr Holohan said: "We are now experiencing a considerable surge in cases and hospitalisations. We can turn this around quickly if we stick to the measures we know worked last spring.
“We have seen some early progress in that the average number of contacts per case has been dropping in recent days – but we need to continue this effort to limit as much as we can our contact with other people in the days and weeks ahead.
“If we all stay home and keep to the public health advice, we can bring COVID-19 back under control - which ultimately will protect our essential services such as Health and Education and most importantly save lives.”
Here is the full county-by-county breakdown of today's new cases:
Monaghan - 117
Louth - 238
Limerick - 322
Donegal - 238
Cavan - 123
Dublin - 1,931
Sligo - 50
Mayo - 99
Meath - 196
Kerry - 122
Cork - 767
Kilkenny - 66
Clare - 89
Wexford - 125
Kildare - 323
Carlow - 38
Laois - 12
Waterford - 103
Longford - 5
Offaly - 11
Galway - 140
Roscommon - 29
Leitrim - 13
Westmeath - 13
Tipperary - 69
Wicklow - 86
