Thousands of people will be asked to do their own contact tracing due to increased strain on the State system.

Around 2,500 people who tested positive over the weekend will today receive a second text message from the HSE.

They will be asked to forward the information on to anyone they were in close contact with in the days leading up to their diagnosis.

It comes after the former head of the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail told Newstalk that the State contact tracing system had “essentially collapsed.”

The system was not able to keep up with the number of new patients who tested positive from Friday to Sunday.

The Irish Times reports that the HSE has now decided not to try and tackle the backlog as it would have led to further delay.

The decision will allow contact tracers to concentrate on the new cases from Monday onward.

Its feared there may be up to 8,000 close contacts affected.

"Under-investment"

Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane said the decision marked a “fundamental breakdown” in the State contact tracing system.

“The system is overwhelmed and this is a direct result of rising cases and underinvestment,” he said. “It is extremely concerning.

“There are constant reports coming from tracers about staff being overworked and a lack of training. Such reports have been met by denial from government.

“The government promised 1,200 additional tracing staff recently and that target has not been achieved. They have not in fact, spelled out how many tracers have been recruited - despite being repeatedly asked for this information.

“The time for talking and for promises by the Minister for Health is over. This is a serious situation that has happened on his watch.”

"Unforgivable"

On The Hard Shoulder yesterday, Dr Ó Tuathail said the system was never big enough to trace 1,000 people a day and it had collapsed under the strain of rising cases in the past fortnight.

"Most people are getting a result within two days but contact tracing has essentially collapsed,” he said.

"We just don't have the capacity to contact trace 1,000 people every single day in Ireland.”

He said the limitations of the system had forced the country back into lockdown.

"The first lockdown was inevitable, the second lockdown was unfortunate, but I think a third lockdown to be honest would be unforgivable.

"So, we need to get our house in order, and we need to dramatically expand that contact tracing capability - because that has collapsed and that is what's causing huge problems at the moment.”

Health officials last night announced 13 further coronavirus-related deaths and 1,269 new cases.