Thousands of people who tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend will be asked to do their own contact tracing.
The HSE is to send a text to 2,500 people in the coming days to tell others they’ve been in close contact.
That means the close contacts of up to 84 people in Clare who received a positive result could be affected.
More than 3,500 cases of Covid-19 were announced at the weekend.
Due to the high numbers of cases and in an effort to maintain effective turnaround times for contact tracing, the HSE is asking a number of those people to alert their own close contacts
People who were alerted by text on Friday, Saturday and Sunday by the HSE will receive another text today which can be forwarded to their close contacts.
The message which replaces the contact tracing phone call advises close contacts restrict their movements and immediately contact their GP to arrange a test.
The HSE says that this is one-off temporary measure being implemented in consultation with GPs, to ensure those affected are tested as quickly as possible.
