Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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245. To ask the Minister for Health the details of the support and advice services available to persons experiencing long-term effects of Covid-19. [23222/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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It is recognised that in some people who have been infected with Covid-19 continuing symptoms or side effects can occur during recovery. These can include physical, mental or emotional difficulties.

A person recovering from COVID-19 infection should speak to their general practitioner or their hospital team about accessing relevant care pathways to ensure that they are enabled to received support and advice for any long-term symptoms or health problems they may be experiencing.

The general practitioner or the hospital team will understand the clinical history and the personal circumstances relating to an individual and can provide the necessary advice and guidance that suit the particular needs of the individual’s circumstances.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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246. To ask the Minister for Health the staff currently assigned or redeployed to Covid-19 testing and tracing work on the basis of their original discipline or area of work within the health service and from other Departments or agencies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23223/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As this is a service matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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247. To ask the Minister for Health the current information available to him on the efficacy of single Covid-19 testing for persons that are asymptomatic in respect of the reliability of such results; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23224/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE has adopted RNA PCR as the gold standard test for diagnosing Covid-19 cases, which has been deployed as part of the HSE test and trace strategy, consistent with international best practice.

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. It is for this reason that testing of close contacts of a confirmed case is carried out on two separate occasions, when they are first identified and again 7 days after their last contact with the person.

Success in detecting Covid-19 is affected by the timing of sampling, the type and quality of the sample and the test used to analyse the sample. However, no single test is 100% sensitive or 100% specific. Extensive validations have been carried out in our laboratories, with national collation of data, to ensure that the tests used show high sensitivity.