The Stormont Executive is meeting on Thursday to discuss the current lockdown restrictions.
It is understood ministers will discuss extending the restrictions to March 5.
The six-week lockdown announced in December is due to end on February 6.
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Health Minister Robin Swann said he would bring a paper for ministers to consider around restrictions.
While he did not reveal his recommendations, he said that this is “not the time to open any floodgates”.
The rate of infections has slowed however hospitals remain under pressure.
On Wednesday, there were 832 Covid-positive patients in hospital, 67 of whom were in intensive care units.
Updated / Thursday, 21 Jan 2021
22:28
Northern Ireland s coronavirus lockdown restrictions have been extended to 5 March.
Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann proposed the step to help drive down case numbers, saying this was not the time to open any floodgates .
Ministerial colleagues at the Executive agreed the move following a meeting in Dungannon, Co Tyrone.
The measures will be reviewed next month, but there are suggestions the restrictions could ultimately continue until Easter in early April.
An extended lockdown began after Christmas with the closure of non-essential retailers, schools were shut to most pupils and employees were encouraged to work from home.
Family gatherings are prohibited and police enforcement has been stepped up.
In Northern Ireland, the remnants of a troubled past still linger, with more than 100 peace walls in Belfast separating the Catholic and Protestant areas with corrugated metal sheeting and wire mesh - a constant reminder of the division that existed between the two communities in one of the region s most socio-economically deprived areas.
Now, as the coronavirus takes hold, the links between that deprivation and Covid-19 shows how the burden of illness and death is being shouldered by both sides of this historic divide which have, in fact, much in common in war, in peace and in a pandemic.
In some parts of Northern Ireland where transmission is particularly high, as many as one in 40 people currently has the virus - while elsewhere it is one in 60. Last week, its seven-day rate was higher than in England and over twice that of Scotland, with an 85% increase since St Stephen s Day in the Belfast Health Trust area alone. Some 21 patients are currently in intensive care across the cit