Cases of Covid-19 are set to hit 4,000 in the coming days, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said.
The Government does not intend to introduce pandemic restrictions before Christmas, but has not ruled out doing so, Mr Varadkar said.
A backlog of unverified cases was in part responsible for the significant spike in incidence, which had been around the 3,000 mark in recent days.
"We will see cases hit around 4,000 today or tomorrow. They've been heading that way and there's a backlog of unverified cases," he said.
But Mr Varadkar said the high case levels were not as much of a concern as they would have been last winter thanks to the vaccination rollout, noting that hospital numbers have remained "pretty stable".
"It's telling us that the vaccine wall is working. Infections and cases aren't turning into hospitalisations to the extent they might," he told RTE's Morning Ireland.
The Tanaiste refused to rule out the possibility that fresh restrictions could be imposed, but said the Government doesn't intend on doing so.
"It would be reckless to do so (rule out restrictions), but I can say that it's not our intention and we don't expect to have to reimpose restrictions before Christmas" he said.
Meanwhile Further Education Minister Simon Harris has said the Government should not dictate how people socialise in the current phase of the pandemic.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan this week suggested that people should only visit nightclubs once every 10 to 14 days.
Mr Harris said: "I think it's not for the Government to stand on a podium and tell young people how to regulate their social lives in a living with Covid phase.
"Students - all people - it's not an age debate, all people need to use their common sense and their cop on.
"I think the point that the CMO made is that we know that the virus spreads, in certain environments, it is easier for it to spread.
"Environments where you're not keeping your distance and you're not wearing your mask, it's more likely to spread."
He said that the objective of living with Covid "can't just be a slogan" and that Government must make a "genuine effort to keep our country open in a very difficult environment".
Mr Harris said he was "very confident" that colleges will remain open, despite the high incidence rate.
He also said the Government had been "too slow" to adopt measures such as antigen testing.
"The buck always stops with the Government" he said.
"I think this country has done a lot of things right, but there are a lot of things we were slow on.
"When I was Minister for Health, we were too slow on face masks. Way too slow.
"In relation to antigen testing, some sectors have moved faster than others."
