Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 2 February 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Update on Covid-19 and Easing of Restrictions: Discussion
Dr. Tony Holohan:
I might ask Dr. Glynn to come in on the question of masks.
If the Deputy will permit me a brief comment on the antigen test, and I am happy to come back on any written response, our advice on antigen tests and how they should be used has not changed and never changed over the course of the pandemic. The difference is their use at a point in time depends on the breakdown incidence of the disease. Antigen tests are useful when the disease prevalence is high, particularly when there is a constraint on PCR capacity. They are useful in situations such as outbreaks. We have always advised that. That is why they are in use now but were not being advised, let us say, when the disease incidence was much lower, such as last summer. We were concerned that people were using them and then using the negative test as a licence to do something that they would not have otherwise done and it was not safe, and about green light use. We stand over our advice and it has not changed.
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