A record 26,122 new cases were confirmed in Ireland on Saturday as the Omicron variant continues to surge.
There are now 917 patients with the virus being treated in hospital, with 83 in ICU.
And while the Omicron peak is now expected in the coming days, there is optimism to suggest Ireland's restrictions won't last much longer.
Currently, pubs have to close at 8pm, household gatherings are limited and events are all at limited capacity.
But NPHET's Dr Mary Favrier said that we could be coming through the worst of it.
Dr Favrier told Newstalk: "So in terms of numbers of the peak we might not have seen it yet, but there is a feel that we may be just coming through this sort of short, sharp steep rise and coming through the other side of it.
"So restrictions all across healthcare and across society would be lifted reasonably quickly - not completely - but all with a view to getting healthcare workers back to work and getting society functioning when we have a better sense of what those figures mean.
"As people will know, the last thing anybody wants to do is go backwards, as we've said before, but hopefully we're starting to see some glimmer of light."
At the moment it is unclear when exactly the current measures would ease, but there is hope that by March we could be back to normal - if you ask Luke O'Neill at least.
Prof O’Neill told this paper: “By the time we get to March and April, it will be a different story entirely – watch.”
He said: “Because this is a seasonal virus, once we come into the spring, the counts will start to fall and the boosters will have worked, for definite.
“New anti-viral treatments will be approved in February and that will be a huge weapon.
“We know a lot about this virus now – for heaven’s sake, it’s been almost two years. We have a heavily vaccinated population, which is brilliant, with a strong booster to sustain protection.
“When you put it all together, by the time we get to St Patrick’s Day, the virus will have gone away almost from Ireland, it will seem to be in the background.”
