Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. In line with the evolving public health policy advice, the HSE has put in place a comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation. Testing and contact tracing continues to be an important element of our response. Our current swabbing capacity is 175,000 tests per week. Demand for testing and tracing is high, as the Deputy will be aware, but every test centre around the country currently accepts walk-ins, which is being very well-received in communities around the country. Alternatively, a test can be booked on the new online booking portal for any nearby test centre, so it is very accessible right now. Contact tracing centres operate 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and are fully-rostered every day. The dedicated workforce, now totalling 930 contact tracers, has been really important to ensuring adequate capacity for contact tracing up to 1,600 detected cases per day. This involves full data gathering and phone calls to all cases and their contacts. The service can now deploy digital mechanisms to significantly increase capacity and continue to contact trace through surge periods if the daily rate goes above 1,600 cases a day.

The testing and tracing programme undergoes continual evaluation and development in response to changing demands and evolving evidence. The HSE has been provided with resources to maintain a robust testing and tracing system to meet ongoing demand. It ensures that its potential to detect and mitigate the impact of the virus across the population is maximised.

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