A health expert says Ireland needs a plan to get the coronavirus 'down to zero', instead of just living with it.
Professor Anthony Staines, professor of health systems at DCU, also warned that the country is facing a "pretty dire" winter in the health services.
It comes as the wearing of face coverings in shops and other indoor settings is now mandatory.
This includes retail and other places like hairdressers, cinemas and museums.
But Prof Staines told Breakfast Briefing we could be doing more.
"I think we can wear masks much more widely, they're a very cheap method of reducing spread, they're very effective.
"And we're not using them enough.
"We have slowed down with social distancing, and people talk about this as being a problem of teenagers having mad parties in houses.
"It's not just that, it's not even mainly that.
"There's a lot of people in shops, there's a lot of people in other settings who are not socially distancing.
"We need a plan which says 'don't live with the virus, try and bring the virus down to zero'.
"That is the more stable pathway and we're quite confident that that's feasible.
"We have a real challenge coming up, which is a health service that has serious capacity problems, as we all know, and was on schedule for a very difficult winter before COVID ever happened.
"And we're now coming into what will be a very difficult winter with probably 50% capacity, 80% capacity in many areas.
"So the winter is going to be pretty dire in the health services, unless we can stop the circulation of COVID in our communities.
"Once we can do that, we can restore life largely to normal.
"There's a lot of things we can do once we get COVID rates down that are currently too dangerous to do - we can also have a more aggressive test, trace and track and process.
"So we're finding people, we're isolating people.
"I only discovered yesterday that many of the workers in the meat factories don't get sick pay - so a worker is tested and is awaiting a test result and goes into work... and that's a major risk for spread of disease.
"So that kind of thing we need to fill in as well.
"But ultimately we need to have a serious plan for getting to zero."
"I think there's a clear view amongst people who work in the field that this can be done, and the ball is now in the Government's court if this is what they want to do."
"We do masks on a much wider scale, we keep up and maintain social distancing in public spaces and in work places, we wash our hands, we use cough etiquette."
He said while people have this information already, "we're not doing it".
Regulations to enforce the compulsory wearing of face coverings on public transport came into effect last month.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said retail staff will be required to wear face coverings from Monday, unless there is a partition or a space of two metres between them and customers.
The rules will not apply to children under the age of 13 or anyone who cannot wear one due to physical or mental incapacity.
Wearing a cloth face covering may help prevent people who do not know they have the virus from spreading it to others.
The wearing of face coverings is also recommended in the following circumstances:
- when staying two metres apart from people is difficult - for example, in shops or shopping centres
- by people visiting the homes of those who are cocooning
- by people who are being visited in their homes by those who are cocooning
People can also make a cloth face covering at home, or use a reusable face covering by washing it daily in a hot wash over 60 degrees with detergent.
