Coalition party leaders will meet today for talks on plans for what restrictions will be in place over Christmas.
Yesterday officials confirmed a further 318 cases of Covid-19, and said another patient with the virus had died.
Dublin, Cork and Limerick saw the highest numbers of new cases, though the national infection rate has continued to fall.
There were 5,193 new infections in the last fortnight, or 109 per hundred thousand people.
Professor Gerry Killeen, a virus expert in UCC, says the downward trend is welcome -- but the danger has not left us: