The Cabinet meets this morning.

A decision on whether the entire country will be moved to ‘Level 5’ of the Covid-19 framework, as recommended by NPHET on Thursday, will likely be announced to the public this evening by Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

Reports suggest that the new measures will be a combination of ‘Level 4’ and ‘Level 5’ restrictions that will see schools open but travel restricted, pubs, restaurants and cafés reduced to takeaway once again and many non-essential retailers and gyms shut for six weeks.

In the meantime, crunch talks will continue at Government buildings, as the total number of coronavirus cases recorded in Ireland hurtles towards 50,000.

A further 1,283 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours with three additional deaths from the disease.

A total of 408 of the new cases were in Dublin, where a month of Level 3 restrictions has done little to slow the transmission of the virus. There have been 156 new cases in Cork in the past 24 hours, with 88 in Kildare, 80 in Meath, 55 in Limerick and the remaining 496 cases spread across 21 counties.

Speaking to RTÉ’s This Week in Politics on Sunday, Minister Simon Harris said the Government’s next move “will be decisive and it will be nationwide action.”

“Tomorrow we will have to bring in more restrictions. Level Three has not worked,”

“It’s clear now that the virus is at such a level within all our communities that the county-by-county approach is not sufficient,” he said.