Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 September 2020

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response

Covid-19: Strategic Options for Government Plan to Eliminate Community Transmission

Photo of Darren O'RourkeDarren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will move quickly into questions for Dr. McConkey. I am interested in samples that are tested. We get results back stating the virus is "not detected". Is there a result stating there is insufficient sample? I want to know more about sample quality. I know from my experience in laboratories in testing solid tumours that we can identify if a tumour is present. Then we can run it or amplify it and we can see genetic material. Does an "insufficient sample" result ever come back?