Anyone with a busy social calendar this festive season is being urged to take regular antigen tests.
The call comes amid elevated infection rates here with 4,642 new confirmed cases in the latest figures from the Department of Health.
Dr Paddy Mallon is an infectious disease physician at St Vincent's hospital and a Professor of Microbial Diseases at UCD says testing twice a week can help to cut down on the number of infections.
"Coming up to the Christmas season is usually a lot more socialising, multi-household activities coming into that sort of season. And if you're taking part in these activities in the safe environment, our recommendation is that you should be testing at least twice a week. If you're doing these activities regularly. The test should be three days apart, and the more people that do that the greater impact that the testing will have on reducing risk of SARS-CoV-2."
