Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said he expects vaccines to be rolled out here in the New Year.
Healthcare workers and those with vulnerable conditions are expected to be treated first.
It comes amid increased calls for pop-up testing to deal with localised outbreaks of the virus.
Professor Sam McConkey from the RCSI says once restaurants open again, the settings could allow the disease to spread:
"There's one case in Germany for example in March of a lady who touched a salt cellar. And then another person come into the restaurant after that lady left, touched the same salt cellar and caught it from the salt cellar. So even touching objects, a few minutes or hours later, can lead to transmission of this virus. So I think we need to be doing deep cleans of all the places that people have been with COVID, and we need to be expanding our circles of testing to contacts who are less close."
