Locals in Kildare, Laois and Offaly are said to be shocked, frustrated and angry after a local lockdown was announced for the three counties.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin last night confirmed fresh restrictions would be introduced in the three counties for the next two weeks.
It comes after 226 cases of COVID-19 in Kildare, Laois and Offaly over the past two weeks.
The new restrictions - which came into force at midnight - will see many business forced to close again until August 24th.
Acting Chief Medical Office Dr Ronan Glynn said imposing the regional lockdown will help to control the disease.
Regulations are to be signed this weekend to put the regional measures on a legal footing, with Garda checkpoints being set up to ensure people are complying with the new restrictions.
Cathal Berry, Independent TD for the Kildare South constituency, spoke to Newstalk Breakfast about the situation.
He said the partial lockdown is hopefully "short-term pain for long-term gain" - but there is "shock, frustration and bewilderment" for now.
"A lot of businesses, small businesses particularly, were just getting up off their knees, and now they've received another hammer blow. It's been devastating."
He said: "We're not really in a good place right now, for sure.
He said he believes the vast majority of people will comply with the 'containment strategy', and that the communities will get through it.
However, he has called for the State to impose a number of measures - including a financial support package for the three affected counties, and more widespread community testing.
He said: "I'm devastated to have to say this, but if there is not a national programme of universal testing in meat and food processing factories, we need to have one.
"We need to go after this virus: we need to find it, and we need to be proactively looking for this illness... and not waiting for a trigger and scrambling to firefight the problem."
Impact on business
The Heritage Hotel in Killenard, Co Laois reopened on June 29th, but is now closing again for two weeks.
General manager Ger Alley said he is angry and hurt after yesterday's announcement, after his business went "above and beyond" to keep COVID-19 out of the property.
He observed: "When we reopened... we were more or less operating to full capacity... it was fantastic.
"We invested a lot of money before we reopened into procedures and PPE."
He said it's 'business as usual' for the next few days, as they're allowed continue to service existing guests and bookings.
However, he said a wedding they have booked for next Saturday is one event that has now had to be cancelled.
He explained: "This couple, a lovely couple... were adamant throughout the lockdown that they wanted to hold the date and get married. They were very understanding of the whole procedures and numbers.
"Their original numbers last week were at 84... we met them Thursday and they brought their numbers down to 42.
"We had to make a phone call last night at 7pm, to tell them we wouldn't be able to fulfil their needs on our property. They had a significant deposit paid with us, so we will have to reimburse that."
Mr Alley said his own team has been great throughout the easing of restrictions.
He said: "What they've done over the last five weeks has been phenomenal... to get the business back. Our business was booming for July and August.
"We will get it back... we're very optimistic. It's two weeks... ten working days. We have to be optimistic.... we need to take it on the chin, and bounce back."
