Fears of a lockdown extension continue to grow as doubts are raised over Ireland's coronavirus testing capabilities.

Experts believe a strong testing and contact tracing regime will be needed before there is any significant lifting of lockdown restrictions.

While the Irish Independent reports that lockdown restrictions will only be lifted very slightly, if at all, when the Government reviews them on May 5.

And although the HSE is planning to scale up to 100,000 tests per week by the middle of May, there are doubts over how this can be achieved.

Officials are considering the best route for swabs to take to laboratories, use of the ambulance service, and automation of the process when positive results come back and notifications go out for contact tracing.

Health Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Paul Reid said: "We are in a much better place."

But he admitted there had been "constructive tensions" with his sponsor, Department of Health, amid concerns about how exactly Ireland would reach its declared target for testing.

A total of 100,000 tests a week are expected to be reached by the third week in May, Mr Reid said, following agreement with the department on the road map and alignment of case definitions.

Meanwhile it was revealed this morning that the lockdown restriction Irish people most want lifted is the 2km movement limit.

Many also want to see the end of the restriction on small gatherings as the Government is set to review lockdown measures on May 5.

The findings are from phase two of the Corona Citizens Science Study, a population-wide survey conducted by research teams at NUI Galway and Dublin City University looking at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the associated restrictive measures on daily life in Ireland.

Half of the 35,000 respondents ranked the two kilometre limit on movement as their first choice to see removed while 37% wanted to see the limits on small gatherings lifted.

Respondents ranked a return to work and school, in third and fourth respectively with the reopening of shops, pubs and restaurants as the fifth preference.

And 10,830 people reported postponing medical treatment or check-ups with half of the group saying this was because the healthcare professional was not seeing any patients at the moment and 39% didnt want to create extra pressure in the health system.

Professor Anthony Staines, Professor of Health Systems, DCU and joint research lead said: These results show some of the real impacts of Covid-19 on our health and on our health services."

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Coronavirus Ireland: Fears of lockdown extension over testing concerns - Irish Mirror