A further 49 patients have died from coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland.
The death toll here now stands at 769.
While another 631 people have tested positive for Covid-19.
A total of 16,671 cases of the killer bug have now been confirmed in Ireland.
Dr Tony Holohan made the announcement at the Department of Health on Wednesday evening.
The Chief Medical Officer added that his department is currently looking into their testing protocols.
He said: "Testing is a key element to Ireland's response to Covid-19.
"NPHET has consistently highlighted the importance of testing so that we can track the spread of the disease, reduce and contain its spread.
"As part of understanding the testing landscape, NPHET requested that HIQA undertake a Health Technology Assessment of alternative diagnostic methods for detecting Covid-19."
The sad news comes after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar revealed last night that a plan is being prepared for reopening the country after May 5.
However the Fine Gael leader warned that things "won't be back-to-normal on day one".
He told RTE's Prime Time: "There won't be any change to the restrictions until the fifth of May.
"At the moment we are preparing a plan we will have before the fifth of May, and we will share it with the Irish public, that will set out in different steps how we we will reopen our economy, how we will reopen our society and what criteria we'll use to decide how to do that.
"I think everyone understands it won't be done in one fell swoop, it won't be back-to-normal on day one.
"What we'll do is set out a series of steps we can take and every two to three weeks we'll review them. We'll review them and see how we're doing, and if we're doing well we can move to the next stage which is more reopening, and if not we'll stay where we are.
"But we also need to bear in mind, there are some countries that have had to reimpose restrictions, countries that thought they had it under control, thought they were doing really well like Japan and Singapore, and found themselves having to re-impose restrictions."
Mr Varadkar also refused to reveal exactly when the new plan would be published.
He added: "We intend to have it to go to Cabinet before the end of April and announce it before the fifth of May."
The Taoiseach also explained that certain jobs and areas of society would inevitably be able to open before others.
He continued: "It [the plan] is not finalised yet, it's still only in development. But what we want to do is open up areas of economy and society that will have the most benefit, but will have the least risk in public health terms.
"And one thing we're watching very closely is some of those countries that are easing their restrictions now, like for example Denmark where the schools are reopening and Germany where some of the shops are reopening, and we'll be able to see how they got on. We'll have two or three weeks of data from them before we make that decision, so we're going to learn from their experiences."
