The Department of Health has been notified of a further 16,428 new cases of Covid-19.
It is the highest daily total in Ireland since the pandemic began.
The number of people hospitalised with the virus has risen for the fourth consecutive day, up 47 since yesterday to 568.
Of those in hospital, 93 are being treated in ICU, which is up one since yesterday.There have been 22 deaths recorded in the past week bringing the total number of Covid-related deaths here to 5,912.
The Chief Medial Officer has expressed concern and "every individual should consider themselves potentially infectious".
Dr Tony Holohan said hospital admissions are at levels not seen since January, with more than 100 patients admitted with Covid-19 or detected with the virus on two consecutive days.
He said the Omicron variant is "accelerating rapidly in the community".
"Given the very high levels of transmission of this new variant nationwide, every individual should consider themselves potentially infectious, and strictly adhere to the public health measures by washing hands regularly, keeping a safe distance from others, avoiding crowded places and reducing social contacts as much as possible," Dr Holohan said.
The CMO acknowledged the 92% uptake of the vaccine as well as the booster roll out as defences from Covid-19.
"The best way for all of us to stay safe and to continue to protect our loved ones over the coming weeks is to keep your social contacts as low as possible, avoid high risk activities and continue to follow all of the public health measures that we know can stop the spread of COVID-19," he said.
Dr Holohan said for anyone who has travelled from overseas to spend time in Ireland, it is important that they "take an antigen test every day for five days"
"If you are planning to visit retail environments in the coming days, please choose retailers that adhere strongly to the public health guidance and leave any environment that feels unsafe," he added.
"The current levels of infection we are experiencing mean that shopping in crowded environments, where physical distancing is not possible, should be seen as a high-risk activity and should be avoided unless absolutely essential - especially by those who are not yet fully vaccinated and boosted," he said.
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Earlier, the HSE said that so far, the system is coping "fairly well", but added that the real pressure point will come next week.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme, Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor said while the number of Covid patients in hospital is growing each day, there was further capacity created before Christmas, with 668 beds still available yesterday.
However, she added that this capacity had reduced significantly from the day before.
Ms O'Connor said she expects more staff to be unavailable for work over the coming weeks as a result of Covid.
Over 3,800 staff had been unable to work due to Covid-related issues in the week before Christmas.
The higher the level of community transmission, the more risk there is to health staff being off work, Ms O’Connor said, adding that asymptomatic staff will be given a derogation to work, under close supervision.
She said she understood the frustration of those who are unable to book a PCR test, but pointed out that unprecedented numbers are being tested every day.
"A year ago if we got to 100,000 we thought we were doing very well," she said, adding that the HSE is now carrying out 300,000 tests per week.
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In Northern Ireland, the Department of Health has reported an additional 22,972 cases of Covid-19 in five days over Christmas.
The cases were recorded between 24 December and 28 December.
There had been no updates in the intervening period due to the Christmas holidays.
Fourteen deaths were also confirmed.
It comes as Northern Ireland's Public Health Agency has changed the guidance on when people should book PCR tests.
The agency's deputy director said it was being done to "protect the testing system".
People aged between 16 and 29 who previously received the one-shot Janssen vaccine will also be offered a booster vaccine from today.
A Dublin-based GP has said Covid-19 is "rampant in our community" and he expects daily case numbers to get worse.
Dr Ray Walley told the News at One that he would see Ireland’s current daily case numbers as "a true picture of what is happening".
"This is happening in Denmark, France, Italy, Germany. Many other countries who in the last 24 to 48 hours have had the highest numbers they have ever had. So, this unfortunately it is rampant in their community and I expect these numbers to get worse," he said.
"Unfortunately we are only at the start of this, we will see admissions go up over the next 10 days to two weeks as we have done before and that is the concern," Dr Walley added.
"The greater majority of people with Covid have had mild symptoms and that hopefully will be similar with Omicron," he said.
"So what we ask people to do with mild symptoms is try to register through the system," he said.
Dr Walley said the focus should not necessarily be on testing but on the fact that "if you have symptoms or you have a positive antigen test or you are a close contact of a confirmed case you need to self-isolate".
"As the day goes on or overnight, slots become available for people to self-refer but the emphasis for testing is not for a diagnosis but for contact tracing," he added.
Dr Walley warned that because Covid-19 "is so rampant in our community, if you have any symptoms at all you need to assume that you unfortunately have Covid".
