A further 3,633 COVID cases have been announced this evening.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) said the deaths of 43 COVID patients were notified in the past week.

It takes the death toll in Ireland to 5,609.

This morning, there were 634 COVID patients in Irish hospitals – up 15% on the same day last week.

There were 119 in intensive care, which is up 21% on last week.

The five-day moving average has fallen for the first time in four days and now sits at 4,211.

The COVID-19 five-day moving average. Image: Newstalk

It comes after the Chief Medical Officer told The Hard Shoulder that now is not the time to be planning Christmas parties.

Dr Tony Holohan said the latest modelling suggests up to 200,000 people could pick up the virus next month – with as many as 4,000 people hospitalised over Christmas.

“We know what happens over the Christmas season is lots of parties and we really do not have the capacity as a country to have significant Christmas-type levels of socialisation in the run-in to Christmas if we are to turn this around,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Minister said the last thing the Government wants is another lockdown before Christmas.

Speaking ahead of a midnight curfew on the hospitality sector, Simon Coveney said he hoped the measures would be enough to reduce transmission.

"We can't rule out further restriction, and we will simply have to follow the behaviour of this virus in the weeks ahead to see whether we've done enough to protect society through winter or whether we need to do more.

"But certainly, the last thing the Government wants is another severe series of restrictions in the build up to Christmas".