Dr. Tony Holohan:

Surveillance will take a number of different forms. It will include testing of our wastewater system, which has the ability to pick up low levels of infection in the population. It will include what is called our GP central surveillance system, which is a standing arrangement that exists for flu every winter, with 60 practices around the country that report their rates of influenza-like illness, ILI, and do some additional testing. That is our early-warning system.

We think it might also be important for us to look at the possibility of doing some early access to testing for people in specific environments such as third level because of the nature of this infection. Almost every wave we have experienced has initiated in that age group. We think maybe some other forms of surveillance are needed, particularly of people who are attending emergency departments or are admitted to ICU, as well as a wider testing arrangement to support our clinical services, in other words, to help clinicians to determine, when it is necessary for them to do so, whether they are dealing with a case of influenza, Covid-19, respiratory syncytial virus, RSV, or something else. It will be the sum total of all those kinds of requirements that will generate our need for ongoing PCR testing. It will have a very different purpose and perhaps a different scale from the testing that we have been doing up to now.