The Health Minister says the backlog of tests shipped to a German lab for analysis should be completed by the end of next week.
Simon Harris says roughly half of the 25 to 30,000 tests sent to a German lab have come back, and the rest's due by next week.
Of those returned, just over 1,000 are positive, meaning the total number of Covid-19 cases in the Republic is now just over 8,000.
Minister Harris says once the backlog's cleared, there are plans to ramp up testing and get people their results within 48 hours.
