A census of mortality in Ireland's nursing homes has begun as part of measures to assess and deal with the scale of Covid-19 in long-term residential care.
Testing of all staff and residents in such facilities has also begun. It will be a priority in these facilities for the next 10 days, above allowing more widespread testing in the community.
HIQA inspectors will go into nursing homes to assess their level of preparation for an outbreak and the systems they have in place to keep residents safe.
The latest figures show 41 more people with Covid-19 have died bringing the total number of deaths here to 571. 778 additional cases of the virus were also confirmed bringing the total to almost 15,000 cases.