Professor Cecily Kelleher:

All of the points the Deputy made about the earlier stage needed to be addressed and we recommend that they should be. It is very important to have capacity for in-house swabbing and rapid entry points into the laboratory information management system, LIMS, so that there is a quick turnaround in diagnostics.

We included in the report the recommendation that procurement should include the supply of oxygen as appropriate, and that should be the case. That is a key point.

I believe point of care testing has been reviewed and that a review is ongoing. PCR testing is currently being used and the National Virus Reference Laboratory is keeping a close eye on that. If point of care testing becomes a reliable means of testing, that will be recommended by NPHET.