The Department of Health has confirmed 5,959 new cases of Covid-19.
There are 640 patients in hospital with the virus, down three from the same time yesterday.
Of these, 121 people are being treated in intensive care, up three from yesterday.
In Northern Ireland, 1,846 positive cases and six deaths have been reported over the last 24 hours.
The Chair of NPHET’s Expert Advisory Group and Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory has said Ireland cannot afford to continue as a country on this trajectory over the coming weeks.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Saturday with Justin McCarthy, Dr Cillian de Gascun said the situation is “very serious in many respects”.
He said nobody has yet been infected in December and he urged people to redouble their efforts to try and control the infection.
“We know that the public health measures that people have been practising over the last two years will be effective against this virus,” he said.
“The problem is that we have to do them better and do them for a longer period of time to get the same benefit with Delta as we would have had with the original virus back in 2020, and even with Alpha around the start of the new year.”
