Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The daily capacity has been significantly increased to 1,600 detected cases per day. The Deputy has raised a very important question, which is, what will happen after 1,600 cases per day are detected? Based on what we are seeing in Scotland and the modelling we have from Professor Philip Nolan's team, we will very likely be looking at more than 1,600 cases per day. There are various protocols to be put in place around using electronic means and shortening phone calls in order to further increase capacity. Probably the most important part of the answer comes from the Chief Medical Officer. He made the point when this happened last winter - he made it again in the discussions we are having with the HSE about what we do when the level is reached - that there comes a level of virus in the community after which contact tracing becomes far less relevant. Contact tracing is really important in dealing with isolated outbreaks in order to find and protect people by isolating them. As the Chief Medical Officer stated, we can get to a point where contact tracing is not the focus as there is a switch to more population-based tools.

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