Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, the buck stops with the HSE in this regard. I do not know whether the national outbreak team has been established yet. I will find out for the Deputy.

In general, we all appreciate the Covid situation is very serious. We are still seeing more than 2,000 cases per day. More than 200 people are in intensive care, and about 2,000 are in hospital. Case numbers and the number of hospitalisations are starting to fall slightly but not at the pace we would like. While no decision has yet been made on restrictions - a decision will be made by the Cabinet next week - it is fair to say we are nowhere near where we need to be to ease level 5 restrictions. Of course, that does not mean that schools cannot open in February. There is, of course, the possibility of opening more construction sites because they are not supposed to be closed normally in level 5.

The Deputy rightly raises concerns about hospital clusters. We are aware that nursing home and hospital clusters are numerous. Sadly, most deaths occur in nursing homes and hospitals. Indeed, it seems that as many as one third of patients in hospital got Covid in hospital. They did not go in Covid-positive; they picked up Covid while in the hospital. Some may not be sick as a result of it. They may be sick for a different reason but it is still a matter of genuine concern that so many people are acquiring Covid in our hospitals.

Regarding what has been done, the HSE is responsible, as I said earlier. It seeks advice from local public health departments on what to do when there is an outbreak in a hospital. Generally what happens is that there is testing in outbreak areas. If there is an outbreak in a ward, an intensive care unit or another part of the hospital, testing is done there. Mass testing has been done on occasion, as in both University Hospital Limerick and Letterkenny University Hospital, but it is very labour intensive and can divert from the vaccine programme, patient care and other things that need to be done.

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