Leo Varadkar has admitted that the recording of daily coronavirus cases is causing a lot of "fear and anxiety."
His comments suggest that Ireland should focus on their weekly and by-weekly figures to see how the country is doing in the Covid-19 fight, something other countries have begun around the world.
The Tanaiste said that the Government and NPHET look at various factors, not just the daily figures, to assess where the country is in regards to the virus.
But he also expressed fears that Ireland could see a further surge in the next couple of weeks.
Speaking on RTE's The Next Normal, The Tanaiste said: "Watching the news most days you'd be forgiven for thinking it (case numbers) was the only one but it's not it's one of about eight different things the Government looks at and NPHET looks at, positivity rate, the R number, number of people in ICU, death rate as a result of Covid.
"I think the over concentration on the daily case number creates the wrong impression, it can actually create a lot of fear and anxiety because that's the figure that is rising exponentially, rising very, very fast, could possibly hit record numbers in the next couple of weeks as it has in most of western Europe.
"When you look at other indicators it's a little more reassuring, they are nowhere near where they were in March but they are going up and they are going in the wrong direction."
Mr Varadkar added nobody knows what is to come in the future.
He said: "It's difficult to know, anyone who speaks to you with certainty about Covid is probably bluffing.
"We can only guess, we are certainly in a second wave in Ireland and Western Europe, we're well into that second wave, it's very hard to know when that will subside."
