Covid-19 Lead for the Irish College of General Practitioners Dr Nuala O'Connor has said there has been a 65% increase in GP referrals for Covid-19 tests in the last week.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Dr O'Connor said they would have referred approximately 25,000 people in the first week of December, but the fourth week saw nearly 70,000 referrals.
She said they are expecting a rise in case numbers as more of those referrals are processed. "We also know that there's been inter-generational mixing," Dr O'Connor said. "We know that the average number of contacts has gone up to 5.9, there are some people who would have had up to 15 contacts over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.