The long-term target of carrying out COVID-19 100,000 tests per week is not expected to be reached for another three weeks.

Over 150,000 tests have ow been carried, including nearly 41,500 in the last week.

The National Public Health Emergency Team said 5,335 of the tests carried out in the last week came back positive.

Officials expect testing capacity to reach 70,000 per week after the Bank Holiday, with a plan in place to carry out 15,000 per day from May 18th.

Dr Cillian De Gascun, chair of the COVID-19 Expert Advisory Group said the eligibility criteria should change from next week.

“We are still working through the residential care facilities and the long-term care facilities,” he said.

“So, that work is ongoing and that is what we have been using the spare capacity for over the last seven to 10 days.

“We believe that will take us through to next weekend and then we will be able to broaden out the case definition further. That is what we would anticipate.”

The Chief Medical Officer Dr tony Holohan at the nightly COVID-19 briefing in the Department of Health, 29-04-2020. Image: Rory Walsh/Newstalk

He said officials hope to be able to test people without symptoms in a matter of weeks.

“If we get to a position where we are able to lift restrictions, we do need to be able to actively test, isolate and contact trace those individuals,” he said.

“You will see a broadening of testing over the coming weeks and what we will be moving to doing is testing asymptomatic contacts of confirmed cases – which is something we haven’t done.

“But as we learn more about the asymptomatic transmission of the virus it is something we need to consider. So, it certainly feeds into our decision-making.”

The failure to meet the 100,000 a week capacity is seen as a factor in the likely decision not to lift lockdown restrictions next Tuesday.

HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said there are a number of hurdles to increasing testing.

“It is a considerable exercise to expand the testing centres; get the personnel in there who have been redeployed from other services, to expand the lab facilities, the reagent and also to look at the turnaround time,” he said.

“In the HSE that plan has been put together, it has been agreed certainly with the HSE board and other people. It is a realistic plan that will increase our testing capacity from what it is now to 15,000 per day.”

It comes as officials reportedly consider a phased plan for lifting restrictions over the summer.

A graph showing COVID-19 deaths by date displayed by the National Public Health Emergency Team, 29-04-2020. Image: Shane Beatty/Newstalk

Yesterday a further 59 coronavirus-related deaths were announced, taking the death toll in the Republic to 1,159.

Meanwhile, 229 cases were confirmed, taking the total here to 19,877.