Dr. Cillian De Gascun:

On the delta variant, this is an evolving situation from the UK. Data from it is coming through on a weekly basis. There was concern initially when it looked at early data that the incubation and infection periods might be slightly longer. That has not yet been confirmed, but is something it is continuing to investigate. Equally, the later test on day ten will cover the in-transit period of time from the UK for possible acquisition. Obviously, the majority of cases there are associated with the delta variant at this point in time.

To come back to the bigger question of what the committee feels antigen testing is adding to the PCR system that is already in place, PCR is the preferred test. It is a better test. In terms of the standards put in place before antigen tests were ever developed by the WHO and ECDC the antigen tests we have do not perform to those standards in the asymptomatic cohort.

This is probably not for today, but it would be useful to try to get back to asking what problem we are trying to solve. Is PCR too expensive? Is it too labour-intensive? It cannot be inaccessible. We are doing 175,000 tests a week. We need to try to address the fundamental principle because PCR is a better test. Antigen testing in the asymptomatic cohort will miss one in every two cases.

The case that is missed may well be infectious and may be the Delta or another variant. The public health measures that we have introduced are-----