An infectious diseases expert says pressing ahead with the re-opening of schools is likely to create "exponential growth" of Covid-19.
All primary and secondary students are due to return to class after the Easter break.
NPHET says there's no evidence the level of infection amongst children has risen is because they're back at school.
Professor Gerry Killeen of UCC feels that their position ignores mounting international evidence to the contrary.
"All of the best evidence - the highest quality evidence - taken from multiple countries and studies in the UK involving 9m adults in households with children.
"There is a paper that had over 200 countries included, all of their trajectories and their different interventions - if all that is wrong it would be a surprise," he said.
Meanwhile, there are 16 people with the virus receiving treatment at University Hospital Waterford.
There are currently three people with Covid-19 in ICU at UHW.
According to the Department of Health, 9 of the 624 cases reported yesterday by the Department of Health in the country were in Waterford.
