People have once again been urged to cut down their social contacts.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has said that one of the fears over the new Omicron variant is the prospect of increased transmission in healthcare settings.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland on Monday morning, Dr Holohan said the current restrictions were recommended with the view to limiting transmission as much as possible in order to protect the hospitals.
"In a hospital situation you've got the challenge of circumstances for spread, they're indoor environments and so on," Dr Holohan said.
"Infection prevention, control arrangements are very important in terms of preventing those kinds of transmissions but you also have a population of people who are vulnerable because many people in the hospital situation are older, they've got underlying illnesses and their immune systems are compromised.
"So right the way through this pandemic right around the world, we've seen a challenge in terms of limiting the extent of what is called nosocomial transmission, transmission in healthcare environment.
"Unfortunately one of the fears that we have about this particular virus is that nosocomial transmission, or transmission in hospitals, might be an even greater risk with this variant than with previous variants because it transmits so readily."
Dr Holohan continued to encourage people to limit their contacts over the Christmas period and to follow the public health advice.
He said it is now down to people individually" to confine social engagements to small groups of people and not to meet up with many different groups of people over Christmas.
He added that NPHET will continue to monitor the situation over Christmas and will provide more information to the Government if it's needed.
Main image via Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie
