Leo Varadkar believes Ireland could overcome the Omicron surge faster than previous waves - despite record case numbers.
The Tanaiste said that January would be a very tough month due to rising case numbers, but that the peak of infections is expected to be earlier than with previous variants.
He added that due to the high vaccination uptake and previous infection levels, it can be expected that the peak could be reached in another week or two.
But he warned that we will continue to see rising hospital and intensive care numbers before then.
“There will be an increase in the patient numbers in hospital and ICU but this won’t be as high as it was last winter because of immunity that has built up due to the vaccine programme and prior infection," he told the Irish Times.
Mr Varadkar was speaking shortly after 9,006 new infections were confirmed on Tuesday.
HSE Chief Paul Reid confirmed that the levels of the virus are incredible high with positivity rates of almost 50% being seen on tests at the minute.
It comes as the Department of Health confirmed a further 9,006 new cases of the virus.
He said: “There is no doubt now that Covid-19 is absolutely running rife in our communities.
“There is an unparalleled level of testing volumes coming forward.
“If you think that you have Covid, it’s most likely that you have it.
“What it does tell us is how rampant it is in the community, if we can all think back we were talking about what happens when it gets to 3% or 5% levels of positivity what actions we trigger so we have moved well beyond that now.
“There is a peak at some stage and we aren’t at that by any stretch just yet, but we don’t know we are at the early stages.
“What we expected is happening because it does accelerate quite quickly, we know it transmits five times quicker than Delta and that’s exactly what’s happening in the community."
Thankfully the health system is still holding “relatively stable” and has not surged to levels that hospitals can’t handle.
