Some covid swabbing sites are reporting 25 per cent positivity rates and many others 10 per cent.
HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid is warning the more widespread the coronavirus is in the community, the more it can breakthrough to those vaccinated.
Meanwhile, close contacts of someone with Covid 19 are expected to be given antigen tests to do themselves, instead of PCR ones, from next week.
They will be asked to collect the tests at their local testing centre and take four in total over ten days.
NPHET has been critical of antigen testing but Niamh O’Beirne from the HSE says the ones they’re using will be very reliable ''The new kits are quite simple. They're nasal swabs so they are not the nasopharyngeal swabs that happen when you go to a testing site today, which are more invasive swab. So they tell us that the sensitivity level between it being delivered by a healthcare professional and the person themselves is practically identical, so we're quite comfortable with that, that people will get used to them.''
