''In some cases it's well over 40 even up to 50 contacts per person.''
Some people testing positive for Covid-19 have up to 50 contacts, according CEO of the HSE Paul Reid
12 people are in the country's intensive care units receiving treatment after contracting the disease.
The HSE says it takes 2.3 days for a person to get referred for a test to their contacts being traced - however that figure is the median.
Mr Reid says some people have a lot of contacts.
''Sometimes the mean or the average doesn't always get the full picture'', he said.
''But in some cases it's well over 40 even up to 50 contacts per person.''
Last night in the republic, an additional 54 cases of coronavirus and two further deaths were recorded.
54 cases.
There has now been a total of 1,775 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland and 27,547 cases.
Of the cases, 27 were associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case, while eight are from community transmission.
Nineteen cases were in Dublin, eight in Kildare, five in Tipperary and the rest of the cases are in Carlow, Clare, Donegal, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Waterford and Wexford.
