Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The latest update I have from the Chief Medical Officer tonight is that the R-number is 1.2 for the country. Cases are continuing to rise but the R-number has come down. On mass screening, which is also referred to as serial testing, there are several programmes under way. There is serial testing in nursing homes, the meat processing industry and direct provision centres. The positivity rates are very low. The latest data indicates approximately 0.3% positivity, which is very positive, if the Deputy will excuse the pun, because it means very few of those people have it, but the testing is catching cases. It is catching staff who are asymptomatic and have no idea they have Covid. It is not catching everybody who has Covid. It cannot do so. There is a very serious case in one nursing home which was reported in the past 48 hours.

On antigen testing, I am delighted to be able to provide some good news. We asked HIQA to do a technology assessment on rapid testing technologies. That paper was considered by NPHET today. The Chief Medical Officer, the deputy chief medical officer, the Secretary General and I met soon after the NPHET meeting and discussed this exact issue. Where it is at now is that it is the view of NPHET that the technology must be validated. That means that pilot schemes will be set up in which antigen testing will be run in parallel with PCR testing, which is seen as the gold standard. I believe HIQA, NPHET and the HSE will work together to validate that. I would like it to be very quickly validated and for our experts to believe there is a role for antigen testing. We discussed antigen testing used in other countries. Their view or understanding is that although other countries are using it, they are not using it as their primary test. The PCR testing is still the way to go in that regard. I am delighted to be able to report that progress as of today.

On the Deputy's question regarding companies, companies do not engage with NPHET. I am not sure such engagement would be appropriate. However, companies do engage with the HSE, which is working or engaging with companies in Ireland and abroad on various testing solutions.

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