Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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489. To ask the Minister for Health if care workers visiting the homes of sick, elderly or disabled persons will be tested fortnightly for Covid-19 in line with the testing of care workers in nursing homes every two weeks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13206/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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A robust and real-time process of testing, isolation and contact tracing is central to our public health strategy for containing and slowing the spread of COVID-19, as advocated by the WHO and the ECDC.

All healthcare workers meeting the current case definition for COVID-19 are referred for testing in line with current testing criteria. There is extensive guidance in place for healthcare workers and this can be found on the HPSC website: . There is also clear guidance in place for the assessment, testing and return to work of healthcare workers.

The HSE has advised that where healthcare workers, including home support workers, require a test, they are prioritised and there is no delay in scheduling a test appointment. Where a person in receipt of home support requires a test, this is also the case.

In addition, current guidance requires the testing of all staff and residents when a new case emerges in a long term residential care facility (including mental health facilities) that have not yet had a case.

It is important to note that testing is only one element of a comprehensive strategic response to COVID-19. Testing for COVID-19 only provides a point-in-time result. It confers no guarantee that the individual with a 'not detected' result is not incubating the infection or the level of virus is below detectable levels at the time of the test.

Targeted, risk-based testing can yield important data to inform control measures, but does not constitute a control measure in and of itself. Testing should only be undertaken based on a public health risk assessment. A comprehensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic must include a strong focus on infection prevention and control and additional measures such as prompt identification and exclusion from work of symptomatic healthcare workers for example.