Stormont ministers make their order for people to stay at home to stop the spread of coronavirus legally enforceable.
Northern Ireland is in the second week of a six-week lockdown in which non-essential retail is closed.
Other parts of the UK have tightened restrictions amid rising Covid-19 cases.
On Tuesday, the Department of Health in NI recorded a further 1,378 Covid-19 cases and 18 more virus-related deaths.
Post-primary transfer tests have been cancelled in NI amid a Covid-19 surge.
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Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political reporter
An order for people in Northern Ireland to stay at home to stop the spread of Covid-19 will become legally enforceable from Thursday.
The executive agreed the move after it met on Tuesday and tightened other measures.
It will mean people must only leave their homes for medical needs, food shopping, exercise and work that cannot be done from home.
It is understood ministers also agreed to a proposal from Health Minister Robin Swann to reintroduce enforcement powers for the PSNI to order people home if they are engaging in prohibited activity.
They did not take on board suggestions of a 10 mile (16km) travel limit but have decided to reduce the number of people allowed to meet together.
Image source, ReutersIndoor and outdoor gatherings will be reduced from 15 people to six and only from one household, which will include children under 12 - exemptions will apply such as support bubbles.
Only up to six people from one household will only be allowed to meet in a private garden.
However, people will be allowed to take exercise outdoors with one person from another household.
The executive also supported a proposal from the health minister to make it a requirement for all employers to conduct a risk assessment where employees are required to work away from their home.
Ministers agreed the measures will last until 6 February, and be reviewed along with other lockdown measures on 21 January.
Discussions on exams took place but ministers agreed to revisit this issue, following a paper from Education Minister Peter Weir.
Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI Education Correspondent
Image source, PA MediaThere is to be a single Association for Quality Education (AQE) transfer test held on Saturday 27 February.
BBC News NI can reveal that the AQE board is planning to go ahead with a single test paper following the cancellation of their transfer tests in January.
AQE said they had taken the decision following a meeting with schools.
34 grammar schools were originally planning to use the AQE test to admit pupils for 2021.
In a statement they said they were "acutely aware of the pressure on pupils, parents and teachers as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic and the decisions which the UK Government and Northern Ireland Executive have had to take in light of public health requirements."
"Following a meeting with the schools which use the Common Entrance Assessment, produced by AQE Limited, it has been agreed that to enable the assessment to take place in the current circumstances, the assessment will be reduced to a single paper to be held on Saturday 27 February, provided it can take place in public health circumstances then prevailing."
Read the full story here.
Stay tuned for our latest Coronavirus Catch-up starting at 19:00 GMT.
Jordan Kenny will be speaking to virologist Dr Ultan Power and BBC News NI's political reporter Jayne McCormack to answer your questions about the latest coronavirus restrictions in Northern Ireland.
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Image source, PA MediaPam Cameron and Jonathan Buckley - two DUP members of Stormont's health committee - have called on Health Minister Robin Swann to make the vaccination programme a 24/7 service.
In a statement, Mr Buckley said other countries, such as Israel, are "inoculating citizens around the clock".
"Northern Ireland must follow suit and the health authorities must be ambitious about what can be be achieved."
Ms Cameron added that resources should be provided to "make the roll out of the vaccine in Northern Ireland not just a lifesaver but a trailblazer".
Two vaccines have been approved for use in Northern Ireland and the second - the Oxford-AstraZenica vaccine - began its roll out yesterday.
Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political reporter
It is understood Stormont ministers are considering whether a specific travel limit should be introduced in NI.
It is believed a paper from Justice Minister Naomi Long proposes 10 miles (16km) - but makes no formal recommendation.
Her paper looks at how the stay at home guidance from the executive will work in law.
In the Republic of Ireland, there is already a limit in place of 5km and no inter-county travel is permitted.
The number of new daily confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has topped 60,000 for the first time since the pandemic started.
According to government figures on Tuesday,, external the number of people who have tested positive was 60,916.
A further 830 people have died within 28 days of a positive test, up from 407 on Monday.
It comes as England and Scotland announced new lockdowns, with people told to stay at home.
Read more here.
Image source, Getty ImagesTaoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin has confirmed that the government is "looking at school closures being extended to the end of the month".
The cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19 in Ireland is meeting today to discuss the proposal for closure of schools during January.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Martin said the government intends for this year's Leaving Certificate exams to be "conducted along traditional lines".
He said that any decision on schools will be focused on preserving the school year.
"We have to think beyond next week and the week after, we have to think to the end of the term, we have to think of the Leaving Certificate, of the examinations," he said.
Image source, PA MediaHe said he would not speculate about whether exam students would go back to classroom teaching before other school years, but "we are conscious of the disruption they face and we will do everything we can to support them".
He said "schools are safe" but for schools to reopen "we want to see the trajectory of the disease going in the right direction".
The Republic of Ireland is currently under Level Five restrictions - the country's strictest rules. Mr Martin said that the guidelines would be reviewed on 30 January.
Following the news that transfer tests have been cancelled, BBC News NI's education correspondent says there is still uncertainty over what decision will be made in terms of other exams.
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Sinn Féin MLA Nicola Brogan says clarification is needed from Education Minister Peter Weir on whether GCSE and BTEC exams will go ahead this week.
In England, this year's GCSE and A-level exams have been cancelled but BTECs are going ahead.
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Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political reporter
BBC News NI understands that the executive meeting has been pushed back until 16:00 GMT.
There will be papers from the health and education ministers, as well as a separate paper from the justice minister looking at enforcement and the stay-at-home regulations.
It is believed there will be proposals from health officials on churches, and further limits on outdoor gatherings in public and private gardens.
It is not clear yet what the restrictions on travel ministers indicated last night will amount to.
The guidance for those who are clinically extremely vulnerable - and had to shield during the first lockdown in March - is not expected to change.
Image source, PA MediaWhat is known about how the virus is transmitted among children and in schools - and will closing them make a difference?
Children's risk of becoming ill from the virus is tiny - and this hasn't changed since the start of the pandemic, even with a new, more contagious variant of coronavirus circulating in the UK.
Despite a clear rise in the number of children infected in the second wave, child health experts confirm they are not seeing any rise in Covid-related illnesses in children in hospital.
Children are more likely to be asymptomatic than adults. One in three people are thought to have no symptoms when infected with the virus.
Read more here
SDLP MP Claire Hanna said it was the right decision to cancel the school transfer tests that were due to take place over the next five weeks.
The tests, used an an entrance exam for many grammar schools, were scrapped four days before thousands of pupils were due to sit them.
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Image source, Collin TorrensA Londonderry school principal has said the decision to cancel transfer tests at such a late stage is "shocking", but he feels it the correct decision has finally been made.
"Children have been put through 12 months of all that hard work only to have it all called off at the last minute," Collin Torrens, principal of Lisnagelvin Primary School said.
Speaking to BBC News NI, Mr Torrens said he only heard the announcement from one of his P7 teachers.
"No matter what decision was made today it was always going to be wrong on so many levels.
"They [school children] have worked over Christmas, they have worked over holidays and this really should have all been sorted in May," he said.
"It really is shocking it took this long."
Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI Education Correspondent
The transfer tests that were due to take place over the next five weeks are off - and, right now, there are no plans that suggest they're merely postponed. As far as we know, they're cancelled for the year.
One of the test providers, AQE, said that they will consult with the 34 grammar schools that use their tests.
But they have not put forward any alternative plans for later tests and some grammar schools that use the AQE test have already set out criteria they will use to admit pupils in the event of the tests being cancelled or disrupted.
So there will now be discussion with grammar schools on the way forward but it looks like schools will have to come up with alternative admission criteria, if they haven't already done so.
The Department of Health has reported another 1,378 people have tested positive for the virus in the past day.
There were 18 more Covid-19 related deaths.
Of these 11 were within the past 24 hours and the remaining seven were over the course of the past week.
These latest figures from the Department of Health take the total number of deaths recorded by the Department of Health in NI to 1,384, while 81,251 people have tested positive for the virus since the pandemic started.
DUP Junior Minister Gordon Lyons told BBC’s Talkback programme that cancelling the transfer test was “common sense” in the in the “public health situation we find ourselves in at the minute.”
"My concern right now is all of the pupils who don’t know what's going to happen," he said.
"I want to thank all of our young people for all of the work they have put in and recognise that and I know there is going to be uncertainty on what happens next.
Asked for clarity on whether GCSE and A-Level exams will go ahead this month, he said: "I think it makes it very difficult for examinations to go ahead but that’s why we’ve taken the time over the past number of hours and the education minister is going to bring a paper on it.
"We can’t just say 'let’s just cancel everything', you have to think of the consequences of that and the impact it will have on young people in the future.
"We make no apology from coming at the position that we want children to have the best education possible that means that they need to have face to face learning as much as possible and we want to plan and prepare for that to ensure pupils are in school."
Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has called on Education Minister Peter Weir to provide clarity on other school exams following the cancellation of post-primary transfer tests.
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Image source, PA MediaMany pupils in Northern Ireland will not be returning to school until after the half-term break in mid-February, BBC News NI understands.
The executive is to meet later to discuss more Covid-19 restrictions including arrangements for schools.
The Department for Education (DE) is proposing many pupils should switch to remote learning for a prolonged period.
But schools will be expected to remain open to admit vulnerable children and the children of key workers.
It is also likely that nursery schools and pre-school settings will close although they are likely also to be asked to admit vulnerable children and the children of key workers.
Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI Arts and Education Correspondent
Image source, Getty ImagesTransfer tests - used as entrance exams by many grammar schools - have been cancelled amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.
The decision has been made just four days before thousands of P7 pupils were due to sit the first of a series of exams this Saturday.
The exams are operated by two test providers - AQE and the PPTC - and they were due to take place from this Saturday right up until the first week of February.
AQE said it would now consult with the 34 schools that use its test on a way forward.
Read more here.