COVID-19 TEST centres have experienced their busiest day to date this week, with over 23,000 tests carried out on Tuesday. 

“We have seen a sustained extremely high demand for Covid-19 testing at our community testing centres in the last number of weeks in particular. This reflects the high prevalence of the disease and other illnesses at this time,” the HSE said in a statement. 

The community testing service was initially established to support the delivery of 15,000 tests per day. 

However, the HSE has implemented a number of additional measures to increase that daily testing figure for peak periods to 20,000 tests per day. 

“Over the last number of days, we have consistently carried out more than 20,000 tests per day, and Tuesday this week was our busiest day to date in community testing with over 23,000 appointments offered in test centres,” the HSE said. 

Test centres have been particularly busy in some parts of the country, including Dublin and Cork. 

“Our priority is to make sure GPs can refer patients for Covid-19 PCR testing where they feel it is warranted, and that close contacts of confirmed cases who are identified as requiring a Covid-19 PCR test get their test appointment as quickly as possible,” the HSE said. 

“Ensuring these two groups are prioritised does mean that those outside these categories may not be able to book a test until the following day.”

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The HSE said it monitors test appointment slots continually throughout the day and added that “slots often do become available later in the day or the following day”. 

“We are currently working on a number of additional surge options to increase the availability of Community Testing to the wider public. We are working to have this additional capacity in place next week,” it said. 

Public health officials today confirmed 5,483 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, marking the fifth highest daily figure in the country to date. 

As of 8am today, there were 549 Covid-19 patients in hospital, of which 96 are in ICU.