More people are to be tested for Covid-19 from next week.
Testing capacity is to increase to 70,000 after the bank holiday weekend, with a plan in place to carry out 15,000 tests a day from May 18th.
Over 153,000 have already been conducted, including 41,000 over the past week.
The Covid-19 death toll stands at 1,159, while there are close to 20,000 confirmed cases.
Dr Cillian De Gascun, chairman of the Covid-19 expert advisory group, says the criteria for testing should change next week.
"we're still working through the residential care facilities and the long term care facilities, so that work is ongoing and that's what we've been using the spare capacity for in the last 7-10 days.
"We believe that will take us through to next weekend, and then we'll be able to broaden out the case definition further, that's what we would anticipate."
