It's after Kildare, Laois and Offaly received a Specific Covid-19 warning.
NPHET is not ruling out local lockdowns, according to the HSE's Chief Clinical Officer.
Counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly are to be issued with further advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team later, after covid clusters at meet factories and direct provision centres.
226 cases have been confirmed over the past two weeks, while 80 workers at a food plant in Timahoe have tested positive for the virus.
Dr Colm Henry says it would be a calamity for the country if we have widespread community transmission again.
''Nothing can be ruled out, because as we've learned the hard way everything has to be considered in order to avoid unrestrained community transmission, like in Northern Italy and in China'', he said.
''We can't afford it [unrestrained transmission], our healthcare system couldn't deal with it we won't be able to open up education''.
Last night, 5 people died due to Covid-19 related complications while an additional 69 cases were identified.
There has now been a total of 1,768 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland, with a total of 26,372 confirmed cases.
Of the cases notified yesterday:
- 37 are men / 31 are women
- 65% are under 45 years of age
- 39 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
- 2 cases have been identified as community transmission
- 22 cases are located in Offaly, 19 in Kildare, 8 in Laois, 6 in Dublin, and 14 are spread across eight other counties (Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Limerick, Louth, Meath and Wexford).
