Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Minister that staff were clearly another vector. However, it took weeks before staff and residents of nursing homes were screened for Covid-19. As he is aware, 21 days ago I asked that all residents and staff be rescreened due to the inordinate delays in returning the original test results. The Minister promised me that would happen. When will the residents and staff of nursing homes be retested? I am so concerned by this failure to retest because the time delay between taking the original test swabs and receiving the results is undermining the credibility of the screening programme. In one instance, a front-line nursing home staff member had to wait 13 days to receive an asymptomatic positive result, during which time she continued to work in the nursing home. She worked in a large nursing home in the east of the country. Amazingly, the HSE had no plan to retest the residents or employees of the nursing home in question. What was the purpose of testing in that nursing home?

In other instances, people waited three weeks only to be told that no test result was available and they had to be retested. What is the benefit of testing when it can take in excess of 24 days to inform someone that they are asymptomatic positive? Testing and delivering results in the shortest time possible is key to success in managing Covid-19. The delays we have seen are totally unacceptable and contribute to the spread of the disease. What are the current turnaround times for informing people of test results? Does the Minister believe these are now acceptable?

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