Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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713. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to concerns regarding the PCR Covid-19 test; if he has received reports on the test since he became Minister; and if so, the details of same. [23590/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I would ask the Deputy to forward further details in relation to his query, both in terms of the specifics of the concerns he refers to and the details of the report he refers to.

More generally, I can confirm that 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, for example, 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. it is well recognised that 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.