The three Coalition leaders are set to meet on Tuesday over the continued rise in the number of people being admitted to hospital with Covid-19.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan are expected to discuss the potential relaxation of the time period that close contacts of a confirmed case will have to isolate, the Irish Mirror understands.
It comes after rule changes were made to the number of days people who have their booster jab had to isolate for after contracting Covid-19.
Government sources have said they are frustrated that boostered people with a negative antigen test have to isolate themselves if they are a close contact as it has had a major impact on services across the country.
But there is concern over the sustained increase in the number of people being admitted to hospital with the disease.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan and NPHET will meet on Thursday and it’s expected they may recommend more restrictions or a tightening of measures.
However, senior sources have said there will be reluctant to reintroduce more measures as it would be “hard to see how additional restrictions would be of much benefit at this stage.”
The Irish Mirror also understands there are no current plans to revisit subsidising antigen tests despite the rapid tests now being accepted as confirmation of Covid-19 on the HSE website.
It comes as the Department of Health has recorded another 16,986 cases of Covid-19.
The number of people in hospital has risen to 804 - the highest level since last February.
This day last week there were 461 people in hospital with Covid-19.
The number of people in ICU with Covid-19 has risen by six since yesterday, with 93 patients receiving care in ICUs around the country.
Senior Government Ministers also expect schools to reopen as planned on Thursday however, unions are expected to raise the issue of staff shortages with Education Minister Norma Foley on Tuesday.
Minister Foley is set to meet school management and public health officials on the reopening of schools.
Another source said the Government expects “we will hit the peak of cases very shortly.”
