It is been reported that a Covid 19 test center is to open in South Donegal this week in Ballyshannon at the lakeside center were members of the defence forces have preparing for its opening this Friday the 27th of March.

Tests will only be by appointment from GPs and will serve the people of south Donegal, North Sligo and North Leitrim.

ST Eunan’s GAA club in Letterkenny is to become a Covid-19 testing centre in the next few days, the club’s chairman has announced.

The centre will operate for 12 hours per day as a drive-through centre for those referred for testing by their GP.

Club chairman John Haran said the HSE responded very quickly when he approached them last Friday.

“As a GAA club at the heart of the community we are already helping out in this time of national crisis and I felt our facilities at O’Donnell Park could be used by our health service too,” said Mr Haran.

Meanwhile Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the Government is hopeful that schools may be able to reopen in May and June.

Mr Varadkar also said: "there is a very good chance" that the Leaving Certificate exams will go ahead and for that reason he would encourage students to continue studying for them.

He said the Government was doing "everything possible or feasible that we can so that that group of young people could start college as normal in October".

Earlier, Minister for Education Joe McHugh confirmed that schools would not be reopening in the short term as efforts continue to stop the spread of Covid-19.

In relation to state exmainations Mr McHugh said that he and his department "really want to make those exams happen".

He said they owed it to young people to "see this through and try to have the exams this year".

He added by that he meant "the dates that are defined for this year" and said his department was working towards this.

The Taoiseach announced on Thursday 12 March that all schools, colleges and childcare facilities would close in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Today, as the Government was announcing a series of significant new restrictions to deal with the virus outbreak, the Taoiseach said: "We are all hopeful that schools might be able to come back in May and June and to have the Leaving Cert in the normal way", the Taoiseach said, but he added that if that did not happen then the Minister for Education was working on contingency plans to allow the Leaving Cert to go ahead.

"The Junior Cert also if possible", he added but said obviously the Leaving Cert was more important.

Minister McHugh acknowledged that this "is an extremely difficult time for everyone, not least students and their parents".

In a statement issued this evening he said his message to students facing exams is that they should keep focused, keep working and try, as much as possible, to prepare as normal for the state exams.

"We are doing everything in our power to make sure those exams happen", he said.

The minister praised teachers and students who "have answered the call to remote learning with exceptional flexibility and adaptability".

He said he was deeply conscious of significant work being done to ensure continuity of learning across higher and further education institutions.