Ireland's Chief Medical Officer is defending its advice for Ireland to cancel its Six Nations match against Italy.
The Health Minister and IRFU will meet later to discuss the proposed cancellation over fears of the coronavirus spreading.
So far 11 people have died in Italy from Covid-19.
Irish people returning from four regions in the country are being advised to self-isolate if they feel unwell.
Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health, Dr Tony Holohan, says cancelling the match would be the responsible decision.
"That event is the 7th of March which is less than 14 days away and 14 days is the incubation period for this infection," he said.
There have been a lot of cases in that region of Italy and we expect that number to increase over the coming days.
"And I think it would be nothing other than irresponsible if we were to recommend otherwise.
"So we think this is the only responsible public health advice we could give."
Yesterday the IRFU sought an urgent meeting with acting Minister for Health Simon Harris for the "specific reasoning" for calls to cancel the Six-Nations fixture.
In a statement the IRFU said: "The IRFU is seeking an urgent meeting with Minister Harris as to the specific reasoning behind calling for the cancellation of the Ireland v Italy Six Nations fixture in the context of the Government’s overall travel policy to and from Italy and other affected countries."
Meanwhile, students from two Waterford schools were identified as “zero to low risk” for the coronavirus, having returned from affected areas in Italy.
Groups of students from St Paul's Community School and De La Salle recently travelled to northern Italy to ski.
St Paul's says the HSE has informed them that the region they visited last week is of zero to low risk for coronavirus.
While a mother of one of the De La Salle students says she's spoken to the Executive and that the area they were in is also deemed low risk.
So far, there have been 90 suspected cases in Ireland, but none of them have tested positive for the virus.
Pupils from three schools in the North were earlier sent home as a precaution against coronavirus after returning from ski trips to Italy.
The pupils from schools in counties Antrim, Derry, and Down, were all on separate trips to Italy recently.
Around 50 pupils and staff from Cambridge House Grammar School in Ballymena, Co Antrim, were in the Lombardy region in the north of Italy.
In Tenerife, a number of Irish people staying at the hotel at the centre of a virus outbreak on the Canary island have contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs.
They are among around 1,000 tourists staying at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel who have been placed in quarantine inside the building.
