Everyone in Carlow-Kilkenny’s neighbouring counties of Laois and Kildare, along with is being put under partial lockdown for the next two weeks.
From midnight tonight, people in the three counties must avoid all non-essential travel for the next 14 days.
All pubs and restaurants in the three counties must close tomorrow, but will be allowed serve takeaway meals and shops can still remain open.
Householders will have to Restrict visitors to 6 people from no more than 3 homes
Non contact sport can continue with groups of no more than 15 but all contact sports cease.
The rest of the country will remain in Phase 3 and preparations for reopening the schools will continue.
The three counties have seen 226 cases in the past 2 weeks, mainly in meat plants.
Those cases accounted for half of all cases in the country in the last fortnight.