Ireland's reproduction number has stalled ahead of plans to reopen the country next week.
The all-important figure, which measures how many people are infected by a person who already has Covid-19, remained between 0.7 and 0.9 for the second straight week.
Despite the number falling to 0.6 two weeks ago, it has failed to drop below the 0.5 mark that health officials had hoped for.
Dr Colm Henry told a HSE briefing: "What appears to have been a very rapid decline of 6% a day (in the growth rate of cases), which had us on track for the really good figure we hoped for at the beginning of December has stalled in recent days with a growth rate of 0% and an R value probably between 0.7 and 0.9."
Meanwhile, the Government is not planning on introducing a cross-border travel ban, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said.
But Mr Varadkar added there would be restrictions on non-essential inter-county travel including cross-border traffic.
Mr Varadkar had told a parliamentary party meeting that crossing the border may not be advised over Christmas.
He told the Dail on Thursday there was "no question of there being an outright travel ban between north and south".
"It's not under consideration, not being discussed, period," he said.
"We don't have a travel ban with Poland, we're certainly not going to have one with Northern Ireland."
