A top doctor has warned of an "inevitable" increase in coronavirus deaths in Ireland if case numbers continue to rise.
Professor Sam McConkey says vulnerable people will start to get sick again if we continue with our "present way of living".
And the infectious diseases expert also addressed concerns that tests may not be adequate at picking up people with Covid-19 arriving into the country.
He told Newstalk Breakfast: "Once we relax restrictions unfortunately with our present way of living the numbers are gradually creeping up.
"What that tells us we can either allow the number to gradually continue creeping up, and I fear that will inevitably lead to more hospitalisations, more deaths, more in ICU and more old people getting it and more outbreaks in vulnerable groups, as we had back in March and April, which was a national disaster.
"Or we'll have to change how we do things. We don't like these restrictions of closing everything down again, that's obviously where we don't want to be. So can we find another way?
"I think we should be copying and learning from what's happened in Germany and South Korea, there are some things they are doing that's different from us."
And Prof McConkey admitted it is a "legitimate concern" that travellers coming into Ireland could test negative and later go on to develop symptoms of coronavirus.
He added: "As we all learned from the cervical screening issues over the last number of years, false negatives happen with every diagnostic test.
"Equally so with the COVID-19 PCR test, for various reasons that can't be fixed at all because there's not enough volume of virus there to pick it up at an early stage.
"False-negative tests are a reality of diagnostic testing and screening of every healthcare system and there's nothing you can do to change that."
