Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan says the country will only be reopened in a cautious and conservative manner, as part of efforts to prevent any further COVID-19 restrictions later this year.
1,339 people with the virus have now died since the outbreak began, after a further 23 deaths were confirmed yesterday evening.
The total number of cases has risen to just under 22,000.
Ireland's gradual easing of measures - set to take place in a series of five phases between now and August - is much slower than in other countries.
However, Dr Tony Holohan has defended the approach - saying it's 'still possible' to lose control of the virus' transmission.
He said: "We are going to be conservative about this. We are going to be cautious about this.
"If we lose control in the way that is still possible - as much as it was in the early days of February - we could have a very significant challenge in our healthcare system, and a very significant impact more importantly on the health of people.
"We could be walking back a road in terms of the reintroduction of restrictions."
Dr Holohan said officials need to be satisfied that the easing of any restrictions does not lead to an "untoward spread" of the infection - but stressed they will walk back any decision to ease restrictions if they have to.
It comes as officials say more than 61,000 COVID-19 tests have been carried out in the past week, with 2,200 returning a positive result.
The total number of tests carried out is now close to 215,000.
From today, testing criteria is being broadened so that people will no longer need to be in an at-risk group to be eligible.
Dr Cillian De Gascun, head of the COVID-19 Expert Advisory Group, says they are keeping a close eye on the demand for testing.
He said: "What we'll be waiting to see over the coming 7-10 days is what the demand for testing is like in the community.
"Obviously the number of positive confirmed cases is going down... our positivity rate is going down. That gives us an indication that there's perhaps not as much disease out there as we might expect, which is a positive finding."
