Health Minister Simon Harris is attending an emergency meeting to discuss the outbreak of the coronavirus on Thursday.
The gathering is being attended by other European health ministers.
Speaking in advance of the meeting, Mr Harris noted that there are no confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland.
He said: "There are no cases of coronavirus in Ireland but we remain vigilant.
"The National Public Health Emergency Team is overseeing and providing direction and expert advice across the health service and the wider public service, on the national response to Covid-19.
"It is important Ireland continues to monitor the situation and to participate in the international assessment of response to Covid-19 through the European Centre for Disease Control and the WHO.
"We should continue to work on a European level to ensure all measures are taken."
Source: European Centre for Disease Prevention and ControlMore than 14,800 new cases of the coronavirus have been reported in China's Hubei province - the epicentre of the outbreak.
Health officials in the country have been using a new method to identify cases of COVID-19, the disease which is caused by the coronavirus.
A total of 242 people died from the flu-like virus on Wednesday - the fastest rise since the pathogen was identified in December.
In Brussels meeting with Health Commissioner, Commissioner for EU Crisis Management & EU Health Ministers on coronavirus/Covid-19 & how we work together at EU level to protect citizens. Viruses know no borders & whilst epicentre remains in China, it is important to colloborate pic.twitter.com/eZtzjKL2l0
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) February 13, 2020
There had been optimism that the number of infections was beginning to slow down.
On Tuesday, China had reported its lowest number of new COVID-19 cases in two weeks.
But the World Health Organisation (WHO) had warned that the apparent slowdown in the spread of the coronavirus epidemic should be treated with "extreme caution".
A total of 48,206 cases of COVID-19 are now being treated in Hubei province alone, most of them in the city of Wuhan.
According to the region's health commission, 33,693 people are still being treated in hospital - and 5,647 of them are said to be critically ill.
More than 158,000 people who came into close contact with COVID-19 patients are being tracked in Hubei, and 77,308 people are under medical observation.
There are 16 cases in Germany, 11 cases in France, eight in the United Kingdom, three cases in Italy, two cases in Spain and one each in Belgium, Finland and Sweden.
Additional reporting: IRN
