More than 6,000 new cases of Covid-19 are being reported with 135 locally.
A total of 6,110 new cases and six more deaths have been recorded by NPHET.
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84 are in Kilkenny with 51 in Carlow.
The 14-day-incidence rate in both counties in below the national average of 583 per 100,000 population.
Chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, Professor Philip Nolan, says we could have up to 2,000 people in hospital, and 400 people in ICU, by mid-January, if we do not act to radically reduce the spread of the virus.
The HSE says it is limiting non-essential services in adult hospitals in order to cope with increasing COVID-19 admissions.
