Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan says we’ll be dealing with restrictions of “one kind or another” until a COVID-19 vaccine is mass produced.
Dr Holohan was speaking as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases passed 10,000 in the Republic.
An additional 992 cases were confirmed yesterday evening - 527 new confirmed cases from Irish labs and a further 465 confirmed by German labs.
There have also been a further 31 coronavirus-related deaths here, bringing the total number of deaths to 365 people.
While strict coronavirus restrictions have been extended until May 5th, Health Minister Simon Harris yesterday warned that some form of social distancing will likely remain 'part of life' until a COVID-19 vaccine or effective treatment was developed.
However, he said some of the restrictions could begin to be eased from next month if progress is made over the coming weeks.
That was echoed by Dr Holohan during yesterday's daily update from the Department of Health.
The Chief Medical Officer observed: "Once we identify an effective vaccine or a number of effective vaccines... the manufacturing and distribution of those is going to take time.
"For that period of time, we're going to be dealing with restrictions of one kind or another."
Dr Holohan said the work health officials are doing between now and May 5th will be to determine what kind of measures will be in place after the current strict lockdown is eased.
He said they would like to find the right balance of easing of restrictions - measures that have the least risk of reintroducing the spread of infections while also having the most social and economic benefits.
Meanwhile, Anthony Staines, Professor of Health Systems at DCU, told Newstalk Breakfast that it's feasible people will have to change their behaviour in some ways until a vaccine is available.
However, he observed: "I don't think it's feasible that we continue as we are now, with the country effectively in lockdown.
"We hope - and it's a miracle that this can even be talked about - that it might be available in 8-10 months... it could take two years... it might not be possible to produce a vaccine against this virus, although that's unlikely.
"We can't run a country with everybody in their house for an indefinite period of time - what I think we can do, and what the Government is trying to do, is bring down the level of transmission in the community to a low level."
Confirmed cases
Health officials have raised particular concerns about the number of COVID-19 cases in residential institutions.
167 deaths have been confirmed among COVID-19 patients at nursing homes.
Figures covering the cases up to midnight on Friday show there have been 140 clusters of coronavirus cases in nursing homes and another 54 in other residential institutions.
The data also shows that a total of 1,777 patients had been hospitalised as of Friday, including 261 who had been admitted to ICUs.
Speaking yesterday evening, HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said expert doctors and more resources are being sent to help nursing homes deal with the coronavirus crisis.
Dr Henry said authorities want to make sure nursing "skills and inputs necessary" to deal with any needs older or ill residents have.
