One of the country's top medical experts has praised the public for obeying guidelines after lockdown measures were eased last week.
Despite recording 310 new cases on Thursday, Professor Philip Nolan said that the reproduction number has remained steady, despite retail, barbers, hairdressers, gyms, pubs and restaurants all reopening last week.
He said there was a major jump in 'mobility' across the country, but the fact that both cases and the 'R' number have remained stable shows that society is clearly following rules.
The Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group said: “The reproduction number is now estimated to be close to 1.0.
"This is a testament to the very large number of people who continue to limit their contacts and follow public health advice.
"Please be mindful that this remains a very dangerous virus, especially for vulnerable and older persons.
"We have the know-how and the determination to keep suppressing this disease, to protect our family and friends over Christmas.”
However, the group of health experts also warned that despite a vaccine being on its way, we need to keep transmission low and not let our guard down.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, added: “It is important that the encouraging plans for vaccine rollout in 2021 does not distract from the actions we need to take as we face into December 2020.
"A vaccine will have no positive impact on the trajectory of this disease over the coming weeks and does not give immunity to people over the Christmas period.
"We must not allow COVID-19 to spread through our communities now, after all the efforts we have made throughout 2020 and how close we are to beginning to vaccinate.”
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