People in cities have been told to reduce their social contacts if they want to avoid further restrictions.
NPHET is examining measures for Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway cities which may be different from the rest of their counties.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin says they are seeing a trend in large urban areas:
"In places like Cork city it has been going up in a straight line over last two weeks. It is worrying with between 20 and 30 cases a day.
"That is a worrying trend and it is the same in other city areas. We are flagging that and making it very clear to people that they are danger areas right now."
It comes as a further 326 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed this evening by the Department of Health.
It was also announced that there were no new deaths from the virus.
There is now a total of 34,315 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
The total number of Covid-19 related deaths remains at 1,797. There are also currently 16 people in ICUs with the virus and a further 94 in hospital.
The department said of the the cases notified today: 162 are men and 152 are women, The majority of cases (69 per cent) are under 45 years of age, 33 per cent are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
They also said that 49 cases have been identified as community transmission.
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Dublin has by far the largest amount of new cases this evening with 152.
Elsewhere there are 32 in Cork, 22 in Donegal, 21 in Galway, 15 in Meath, 11 in Kildare, nine in Kerry, eight in Louth, eight in Westmeath, six in Limerick, six in Mayo, six in Tipperary and five in Wexford, with the remaining 25 cases in eight.
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Speaking this evening, Dr Ronan Glynn, acting chief medical officer said:
“Today I am asking people everywhere but particularly in Donegal and Dublin to pay special attention to the public health advice.
“I ask every individual to take personal responsibility to prioritise who you need to see, limit the size of your social network and reduce your social contacts over the coming days and weeks.
“Because while there is every chance that other areas will have to move to level 3, there is nothing inevitable about it. We have seen previously how people working together can turn the tide on this virus and bring increasing trajectories back under control.
“Know how valuable your individual actions are. Your choices and your actions are part of how we will succeed.”
Three deaths and an additional 324 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed yesterday evening.
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