The government is set to reject proposals from NPHET to move the entire country to level 5 restrictions.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan met with a team of senior ministers earlier and tried to convince them that moving to level five restrictions was the right decision.
However, it's understood the entire country will be placed on level three -instead.
That's the level where Dublin and Donegal have been.
Government sources said they will be upping the monitoring and enforcement of those restrictions instead of moving to a full lockdown.
A formal announcement will come later this evening.
It comes as 518 new cases of covid-19 were confirmed today.
