The HSE has said that it has trained more than 1,700 people in contact tracing.
In a statement to RTÉ's Prime Time, it said that today approximately 80 people were conducting contact tracing.
The statement added that on its busiest day, approximately 300 people were contact tracing, making more than 5,000 calls, after more than 1,400 people had their Covid-19 tests confirmed.
There are nine contact tracing centres throughout the country, four of which were in operation today.
At the largest contact tracing centre at University College Dublin, Professor Mary Codd, Associate Dean of Public Health, told Prime Time that there are 72 phone lines in six rooms, and UCD has capacity to increase its output of contact tracing by more than 50% if required.
She said that the ideal scenario would be a 48-72 hour turnaround from an initial swabbing of a suspected case of Covid-19, to confirmation of a case, to contact tracing, and identifying clusters and giving advice to people to isolate.
Dr Tomás Ryan, from the School of Biochemistry and Immunology in Trinity College, told the programme that the key to best ensuring a responsible easing of the current restrictions was to follow the South Korean model of testing, contact tracing, and isolating - all in very quick time.
