Taoiseach: Government will clarify soon whether country can begin reopening next month

But Micheál Martin is warning it will be a cautious approach as the Covid 19 figures are still too high.

As it stands, the current Level 5 restrictions are set to continue until March 5th.

Speaking on his way into Cabinet this morning, the Taoiseach said he will update people soon on any plans to reopen society: 

"We'll bring greater clarity to that towards the middle of this month but bear in mind that we will be conservative and cautious in terms of any reopening, and the objective is prolonged suppression of the virus to get the numbers down very low, and to keep them low." 

Meanwhile the Transport Minister says further travel restrictions will be introduced to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Currently passengers have to provide a negative PCR test which was taken 72 hours before arriving into Ireland. 

While people have to quarantine for two weeks if they’re coming from South Africa or Brazil.

Eamon Ryan says this will extend to other countries in time: 

"I think we're going to do more extensive restrictions on travel, including quarantine from other countries other than Brazil and South Africa. So, but I think we'd need to get the system up and running, we'd get the hotels working, and then we can extend."