Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We need to be clear and honest about this pandemic. There is no doubt that there are always areas in which we must continue to improve but the difference between this Government and others in different jurisdictions is that, when the challenge gets difficult, we do not walk away. In many countries, one would not get a test for Covid-19 unless one was in a hospital setting. Many countries are not doing community testing or recording what we are recording. We are proactively seeking to find this virus in every possible scenario we can, including the community at large, and we have had success in that regard in the suppression of the virus so far. We are also now identifying areas of particular challenge and difficulty such as nursing homes and we have seen progress made as a result of the significant effort in testing made by many staff in the HSE, HIQA and other places. The Deputy is right to highlight certain workplace environments.

We will have the capacity to do 100,000 tests a week from next week. That will ensure that there is capacity to test people who are symptomatic, to test their close contacts and also then to target testing at other groups who might be vulnerable to the spread of the virus.

The Deputy is right about the need to tighten further turnaround times. The issue was the challenge of capacity and it is now the challenge of turnaround times. The HSE made clear comments about that today, with a target of completing end-to-end referral to contact tracing in less than three days in 90% of positive cases from next week, acknowledging that there will always be some cases, the remaining 10%, which will be more complex in terms of contact tracing and management. The HSE also outlined a target from swab to result of two days which, of course, will account for the majority of people who receive a negative result, which is currently approximately 97% of tests.

I do not have any information about the issue of patients' details going to their employers but I would be very happy to receive it and revert to the Deputy.

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