The Cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19 met to consider the advice of public health officials on the easing of lockdown restrictions.
It comes ahead of a Government decision tomorrow on any easing of Level 5 restrictions next month.
The sub-committee heard presentations from the National Public Health Emergency Team, the Health Service Executive and the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.
The Minister for Transport, Environment and Climate said it was critical to get the next few weeks right to bring the country back on the path back to normality, which is now in prospect.
Eamon Ryan was speaking following the lengthy sub-committee meeting, which heard NPHET warn that any major easing of restrictions would put the country in a perilous state.
This is because there are not enough people vaccinated at this point.
The NPHET advice was described as very cautious and sobering amid warnings that major changes could spark another wave of the virus.
Tonight's meeting fed into a final Cabinet decision tomorrow, with differences among ministers as to whether this should be reviewed in four or six weeks.
Green leader and Minister @EamonRyan on tonight's Cabinet sub committee meeting re easing #covid19 restrictions @rtenews pic.twitter.com/7jWCRT4egI
— Paul Cunningham (@RTENewsPaulC) March 29, 2021
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said this afternoon that he would not be making an announcement today on the restrictions.
There is a political view that any small easing of restrictions could be introduced on a phased basis with the Government's top priority the return of all primary and secondary school students on 12 April.
Amid concerns about rising virus rates, there remains confidence in Government that children's sports training along with GAA inter-country training will resume in April.
It is slightly less clear whether tennis and golf will resume. The return of point-to-point horse racing was under discussion too.
It is understood some large companies in the food supply chain have told Government they need to upgrade facilities this year to ensure smooth supplies.
This may inform the deliberations around allowing a phased return of construction in April.
An extension to the 5km limit is among the measures expected to be introduced next month.
Changes are expected to be limited as concern remains about a possible fourth wave of Covid.
The five-day average of cases stands at 620, while the number of new cases has been over 600 for five of the past six days.
However, the Government wants to offer some hope to a fed-up public.
Mr Martin will also set out a plan for a broader relaxation in May and June with the return of non-essential retail, outdoor dining and personal services, but no dates will be attached to it.
It is hoped this time will be the last appeal for people to hold firm as the vaccination programme ramps up significantly.
Latest figures show that there are 331 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals.
The hospitals with the largest number of patients with the coronavirus are St James's, Beaumont, and Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown in Dublin.
The Health Service Executive's National Lead for Testing and Tracing has said an increase in social interaction is leading to the rise in positive Covid-19 cases.
Niamh O'Beirne said extended family interactions are growing and the number of social settings has also increased over the last couple of weeks.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Ms O'Beirne said that more walk-in centres, based on local public health knowledge, will be established in areas of high prevalence around the country.
She said other measures will also come into effect in April, including self-referral for asymptomatic people through the use of a phone line and online access to testing.
Ms O'Beirne said currently around 20% of people come under a community transmission category and do not know where they might have contracted the virus.
It is for these people, she said, that teams need to spend more time on tracking their activities over the previous seven days.
Once this has been done, the local health department will look at this data and make a decision on whether more testing needs to be carried out locally.
She explained there are currently more than 830 tracers and said there are enough tracers to carry this work, at this time.
Ms O'Beirne added that this approach is viable on a downward trajectory and when an increase in social settings is being seen.
The purpose of a seven-day track and trace is to identify higher risk settings so the public can be informed, she said, and identify any additional clusters.
Ms O'Beirne said there has been an increased number of lab cases over the last couple of weeks but this has steadied in the last number of days.
In addition, there has been an increased level in the referrals of children.
Ms O'Beirne commented that there has been quite an increase in mass testing of children, as a result of index cases in schools, but that this has "really low positivity levels".
She said the five new walk-in centres have been really well received and the overall positivity rate is 3%. Although Blanchardstown initially had a higher positivity rating, it has now come in line with the other centres.
She said most people who have tested positive are asymptomatic and a much younger cohort is presenting for testing, with people between the ages of 25 and 44 making up 41% of those coming forward for testing.
The positivity rate for those aged between 25 and 44 is 5%.
Meanwhile, 22 counties showed decreases in the number of people staying local within 10km of their home, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
An estimated 65.1% of the population stayed local for the week ending 19 March, down 0.6 percentage points on the previous week.
Four counties showed staying local increases and these were Dublin, Carlow, Offaly and Kildare. Dublin continues to be the county with the highest percentage of the population staying local.
The risk of onward transmission of Covid-19 seems to be reduced in those who are vaccinated, according to a technical review published today by the European Centre for Disease Control.
It also said today that Covid-19 re-infections are rare.
The ECDC said that while the impact of the new variants on transmission patterns needs to be closely monitored, it is expected that the total number of infections will significantly decrease as vaccination coverage increases.
It said that evidence of the impact of vaccination is available from one study which suggests that vaccination of a household member reduces the risk of infection in susceptible household members by at least 30%.
Additional reporting Sandra Hurley, Mícheál Lehane
