Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has recommended that NPHET be stood down at this stage of the pandemic.
Today may have been the final meeting of the advisory group, it has emerged, after Dr Holohan proposed that the team should be replaced with a smaller monitoring group.
The experts have also recommended an end to mandatory face-mask wearing in schools and public settings, apart from healthcare settings.
The recommended date for scrapping face mask requirements is from February 28th. It will mean that masks would no longer be legally required in retail outlets, public facing jobs, and on public transport.
The recommendations, agreed today, will be reported to the Health Minister before they can be considered and approved by Government.
A further 9,441 new cases of Covid-19 were notified to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre today.
The latest daily case figure in Donegal was 342, as of Wednesday.