We can save Christmas if action is taken now to stop the spread of COVID-19, public health officials have said.
It comes as NPHET warns that cases of COVID-19 could exceed 1,000 a day in a matter of weeks, saying that we are now in a period of "exponential growth" of the virus.
Public health officials will meet again today amid their significant concerns over the rate of transmission since they last met on Sunday.
They previously recommended strict level five restrictions - but the Government instead opted to move the country to level three.
Chairman of the NPHET Modelling Advisory Group, Professor Philip Nolan, said projections they made just a few weeks ago have proven accurate so far.
He said: "[We projected] by the 7th of October, we would see 590 cases - we report 611 today.
"I don't think any pleasure in the fact that that model has proven to be an accurate prediction."
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said officials will give 'specific consideration' to Christmas, and they hope to not be in a situation where they have to advise people not to meet other households.
Prof Nolan added: "We can still save Christmas, I presume, if we do the right thing over the next few weeks."
'Purgatory'
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Professor Sam McConkey - head of the department of international health and tropical medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - said his view is that increased restrictions are now needed.
He said: "What we've been doing in Dublin for the last three weeks and the rest of the country for the last few days has not been adequate to bring the level of coronavirus in Ireland under control.
"Whether that's level four for three weeks and then level five if it doesn't work, or straight to level five... that's a matter for discussion."
He acknowledged that numbers in Dublin have 'levelled off' - but suggested that leads to a sort of 'purgatory'.
He observed: "I think we're seeing some impact... but to me stabilised where we're at at level three for a long period of time... is not a solution to this.
"My view is businesses would be better off with two months or so of tight restrictions - getting in control of it, and then getting it down."
He stressed that projections about future numbers are 'not a prophecy' about what's going to happen, and that health officials always hope that the course of the virus can be changed.
