A further 11 people have died from coronavirus in Ireland as 115 new cases were confirmed this evening.
It brings the total number of infections here to 24, 506.
While 1,592 people in this country have now sadly passed away from the disease.
The announcement was made at a Department of Health media briefing on Friday.
The National Public Health Emergency Team met again on Friday, and Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan gave an update on their latest findings.
He said: "Today NPHET recommended that the HSE build on the very significant work to date in expanding the testing capacity, to ensure that there is an integrated and coordinated clinical and public health-informed approach to the establishment and implementation of a national testing strategy."
It comes after one of our leading health experts warned a second wave of Covid-19 in Ireland is not a matter of if, but when.
Due to Ireland's relatively low number of cases compared to countries abroad, we could be more susceptible to a second coronavirus wave.
As few as 50,000 people - 1% of the population - may have been infected by the coronavirus, according to Professor Phillip Nolan of Maynooth University.
The NPHET member made the warning on Thursday night as the latest cases and deaths were announced.
The head of disease modelling for NPHET said that it's not a matter of when but how big a second wave will be.
Speaking on RTE's Prime Time, Professor Nolan said: "The level of immunity in the population is so low, whatever it is, it's not sufficiently high enough to offer us any sort of protection against the virus.
"That said, even though it's the job of disease modellers to predict the future, we are very cautious about doing it.
"The future will be different because the risks are different, we understand a great deal more about this virus, the people understand a lot more about this virus and how to protect themselves for it.
"The level of infection in the population right now is low and the HSE has a world class high capacity testing and contract tracing operation.
"It's not a question of if we will have a second wave, it's a question of when and how big? And that how big is under our individual control in terms of how we go about our business over the next few months and our collective control in terms of the measures we put in place to interrupt transmission.
"We are going to have to be very vigilant of importing cases to the country."
