Dr Tony Holohan is asking everyone to act as if they are infectious and stay at home after a humongous jump in infections over the last 24 hours.
The Department of Health has this evening announced 4,962 new Covid-19 cases with seven more people dying from the disease.
And the Chief Medical Officer has pleaded with the nation to heed public health advice and save lives.
Dr Holohan said: "This is a critical time. We are seeing a really significant surge in infection, which is leading to a very rapid increase in both hospitalisations and admissions to critical care units.
"This is not only unsustainable for the healthcare system, but also a deeply concerning level of preventable sickness and suffering that we must work together to address as quickly as possible.”
"The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has more than doubled from this day last week, and so has the number of people in ICU. Remember that behind each hospital statistic and ICU figure is a real person like you, with a family who cares about them, and a team of healthcare workers dedicated to protecting their lives. We must be as dedicated as we all were in the spring in our commitment to following the public health advice.”
"Act as though you are infectious. Stay at home. Work from home starting from tomorrow, and if you are an employer, ask your employees to work at home. What we all do at a collective level today will have a direct impact on the level of infection and hospitalisations in the weeks to come.
"Your safe actions now will protect our hospitals and those who work so hard in them. Simply put: when you stay at home, you protect the frontline healthcare workers who have worked tirelessly to keep us all safe throughout this pandemic. Hold firm and remember them."
In the last 24 hours, Dublin has recorded 1,260 cases, 652 are in Limerick, 350 in Cork, 321 in Louth, 238 in Meath and the other 2,141 spread across all remaining counties.
You can follow all the very latest updates on the situation right here in our live blog.
