Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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92. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to introduce regular testing for Covid-19 of home care workers in view of the vulnerability of the clients they are caring for through age or disability or both; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23658/20]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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COVID-19 testing demand is influenced by a range of factors including prevalence of the virus, the case definition and overall testing strategy, and testing activity levels will fluctuate as these factors change as we have already seen over the last four months. The HSE's overall testing approach continues to evolve in accordance with the epidemiology of COVID-19 in Ireland.

I have been informed that where healthcare workers, including home support workers, require a test, they are prioritised and there is no delay in scheduling a test appointment.

You will appreciate 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. A comprehensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic must therefore 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.

Appropriate infection prevention and control practice across the home care sector will therefore continue to be an important protection for clients and health care workers from COVID-19.