LATEST: Warning of ‘difficult’ weeks ahead as over 3,000 new infections confirmed

A futher 3,138 people have contracted Covid-19, the Department of Health confirmed this evening.

And there are now 643 patients being treated for the virus in hospital, of which 118 are currently in ICU,

The latest cases come as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, warned the next few weeks will be “difficult for everybody”, citing modelling suggesting Ireland will record upwards of 200,000 cases in December.

But in a video posted online, Dr Glynn insisted these cases are “not inevitable”.

“These people have not yet been infected. We can avoid this case load and ensuing impact on the health service by following basic public health advice,” he said.

“We are all understandably very, very tired of this pandemic. Time and again, we’ve asked you to take on board public health messaging and act for the collective good and time and again, the vast majority have listened to that message and responded.

“Unfortunately, we must now ask people to heed public health advice once again.”