Closing things down or restricting people should not be considered at this point, according to Professor Sam McConkey.

He was speaking after the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, did not recommend new COVID-19 restrictions when he met Government party leaders on Tuesday.

But Dr Holohan presented them with new modelling about the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.

It made up some 14% of COVID-19 cases announced on Tuesday - up from 11% on Monday.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) will fully consider whether new measures are needed when it meets on Thursday.

Prof McConkey is an infectious disease specialist at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

He told Newstalk Breakfast vaccines, not restrictions, should be the answer.

"I don't feel we should be closing things down or restricting people more at this point.

"What I really would like to see is a big increase in vaccination capacity, like what we had back in the summer when we were rolling out vaccines very, very fast.

"That capacity has been lost and I would like to see it rebuilt in the next day or two; and then to boost most of our population over the next 20 days or so."

He says vaccine centres should be fully staffed - with possibly two shifts a day - and open 12 hours a day to get the most capacity.

"We've seen our neighbours across the water are trying exactly the same strategy, I think they're right in that.

"I think we should be encouraging folk to use masks, to work from home, to socialise in small groups - as we've all been mostly doing for the last couple of weeks.

"So especially coming up to Christmas when we will visit our friends and relatives - ideally try and do that outside.

"So maybe we can have a few little drinks outside with our neighbours, rather than having them in for tea."

'A stand-in for the stand-in'

And he says businesses should be preparing for uncertainty around Omicron.

"I think business should prepare for uncertainty, they need a business continuity plan, because there's a lot of uncertainty of how severe this new Omicron wave will be.

"In South Africa it hasn't been too severe, but there's reasons why - in UK and Britain - they're worried that it will be more severe.

"We don't know how clinically severe it'll be: it will definitely come, it will definitely spread through the population - but many of us are hopeful that it won't be as bad as some of the previous strains.

"Anything could happen in the next couple of weeks, and I do think businesses need to have someone for me and someone for you - if we get sick and are not at work - we need somebody who can stand-in for us.

"And maybe even someone to stand-in for the stand-in; so all businesses that want to keep their service on the road need a couple of stand-ins for every role that's important".

While Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said he is expecting NPHET will recommend more COVID-19 restrictions later this week.

He told Newstalk they will likely include measures aimed at trying to decrease the amount of social mixing, as well as possible new measures around close contacts and revised rules on international travel.

"I would expect more recommendations around the management of close contacts, recommendations to decrease the amount of social mixing, and also some recommendations around international travel", he said.