A total of 227 more people have tested positive for coronavirus in Ireland, while five more deaths have been confirmed.
There have been a total of 2,102 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
Of the cases notified today;
- 98 are men / 129 are women
- 64% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 37 years old
- 70 in Dublin, 26 in Donegal, 19 in Limerick,14 in Louth, 14 in Kilkenny and the remaining 84 cases are spread across 17 other counties.
Elsewhere, there were significant updates from Leo Varadkar on expected cases over the Christmas season and more.
Varadkar on the "inevitable" spike of cases over Christmas
The Tanaiste has said a spike in COVID-19 cases is "inevitable" with people mixing over the Christmas holidays.
The Fine Gael leader added that if further restrictions are introduced in January, they "won't be done lightly".
"It is likely that cases will rise again and we have never ruled out the possibility that we will reintroduce restrictions for a short period in January," he said.
Varadkar said any decision to move back to Level 5 will not be made lightly.
"We need to make sure that we don't concentrate too much on daily numbers. If the Government has to reimpose restrictions we won't do it lightly as we know what it means for businesses, for jobs, but if we do, it will be for as short a period as possible."
The Fine Gael leader was also optimistic that the vaccine will be successful and that restrictions will ease in the new year.
"I think that vaccines, with mass testing and with increased knowledge of how we treat and prevent this disease, we will see the end of this pandemic in 2021 and that's the best news from yesterday. In terms of what we are doing, we have advanced purchase agreements to buy six vaccines, eight million doses for Ireland," said Varadkar.
Vaccine blow for people with "significant allergies"
People with "significant allergies" have been warned not to get Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine.
The warning was issued after two people who had the jab on Tuesday begun to suffer allergic reactions.
The NHS confirmed that two staff members who received the vaccine on the first day of the mass vaccination programme suffered an allergic reaction.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has given precautionary advice to NHS trusts that anyone who has a history of “significant” allergic reactions to medicines, food or vaccines should not receive the vaccine.
The MHRA advice states: “Any person with a history of a significant allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine or food (such as previous history of anaphylactoid reaction or those who have been advised to carry an adrenaline autoinjector) should not receive the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine.
“Resuscitation facilities should be available at all times for all vaccinations. Vaccination should only be carried out in facilities where resuscitation measures are available.”
Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is just one of the six advanced purchase agreements that Ireland has opted into - Moderna, Oxford/AstroZeneca, Janssen, BioNTech-Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur and CureVac - with doses of COVID-19 vaccines expected to become available in Ireland next month.
A high-level taskforce established to oversee the development and implementation of the programme for the rollout of vaccines will publish its action plan on Friday.
