Ireland's Covid situation has been declared as "serious" following a sharp increase of 18% in the 14-day incidence rate compared to last week.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre was notified of 3,726 confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, with 493 people in hospital, of whom 90 patients are in ICU.
In a statement, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said Covid is circulating widely through communities and urged anyone who is yet to receive their vaccine to do so.
He said: "Covid-19 is circulating widely in our community, but we have the tools to limit its spread.
"We know that vaccination is very successful at preventing severe illness and hospitalisation and I urge anyone who still needs to get their Covid vaccine to do so.
"We also know that, even when vaccinated, we still need to practice basic public health interventions - washing our hands, opening windows, wearing masks and most importantly, staying home when we have symptoms.
"These simple measures are very successful at breaking the chains of transmission of this disease.
"As we practice all elements of the public health advice, we keep ourselves, and our communities safe."
On Tuesday evening, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly proposed extending emergency legislation that allows the use of measures such as face coverings and Covid passes for another three months until February 9.
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He said: "We're in a place where we have to be concerned about the burden and impact that this level of disease is having and could have on social care services in the coming weeks and months.
"We're already seeing the cancellation of procedures and operations across the country. And we have to be concerned that things will deteriorate further."
Speaking from the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the growing cases numbers were "very concerning" as he emphasised there "are no guarantees" when it comes to Covid.
He told RTE's Morning Ireland: "There are no guarantees in relation to Covid-19.
"The modelling we received from NPHET was looking at a situation peaking towards the end of November.
"But it is very concerning, the high rise of cases."
However, Mr Martin stressed that the government has learned a lot from Covid since the beginning of the pandemic and would react differently this time.
He said: "We've learned from Covid-19...we have to take it very seriously, the vaccines work, we are in a very different place from where we were last year."
