Immunology professor at Trinity College Dublin Tomas Ryan says restrictions may have to be extended in the counties.
Kildare, Laois and Offaly may need to stay in lockdown for up to six weeks if there's a further increase in cases of Covid 19, according to a leading expert.
Health officials have already warned a "significant" number of new infections could be reported over the next seven days.
The Cabinet sub-sommittee on Covid 19 is holding a virtual meeting today, with the recent spike in cases among the items to be discussed.
The increase has led to restrictions being re-imposed for two weeks in Kildare, Laois and Offaly.
But Tomas Ryan, an immunology professor at Trinity College Dublin, says the measures may need to stay in place for longer.
''I can't see how two weeks would possibly be sufficient to really contain this, and I think most people see that'', he said.
''If there's a further increase in cases then I think a timeline of four to six weeks''.
Yesterday (Monday) a total of 57 cases were confirmed across the Republic.
19 of the cases are located in Kildare, 11 in Dublin, 10 in Offaly, 7 in Limerick and the rest of the cases are in Clare, Cork, Galway, Kerry and Wicklow,
- 29 are men / 28 are women
- 70% are under 45 years of age
- 31 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
- 8 cases have been identified as community transmission.
