Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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851. To ask the Minister for Health the process for Covid-19 testing specifically for routine testing in nursing homes; the location swabs are sent; the average wait time; and the longest wait time for processing and return of results [26642/20]

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.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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852. To ask the Minister for Health if routine Covid-19 testing in nursing homes has proven sustainable; if staff and residents in nursing homes are still being tested every two weeks; and if delays have been incurred specifically in County Meath [26643/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) requested the continuation of the planned programme of serial testing of all staff in residential care facilities (RCFs) for older people over the past  weeks.  This second cycle of the programme ran from 10 August to 4 September 2020.  This programme involved testing of all staff in RCFs for COVID-19 once a fortnight, for four consecutive weeks. 

In answer to the Deputy's question, it has proven both sustainable and valuable to date.  As part of our overall testing and tracing strategy, rigorous contact tracing and automatic testing of close contacts, large-scale testing in outbreak situations and other serial testing programmes means we are finding more cases than we would have previously. 

Cycle 3 commenced on 16 September on the same fortnightly basis. As of 22 September, there have been 12,165 tests carried out in Cycle 3 with 30 cases detected. This represents a positivity rate of 0.25%.

A further schedule has been developed for serial testing of staff in Residential Care Facilities for older persons.  This is a 2 week cycle with swabbing over 7 days.  The majority of RCFs have identified staff who are now swabbing their peers in the RCF. This training has been facilitated by HSE.   

In relation to delays in County Meath, the only instance identified by the HSE, relates to Heatherfield Nursing Home, Dunshaughlin, which has not yet identified staff to carry out swabbing and as a result required support of National Ambulance Service (NAS) to carry out swabbing.  The NAS did not have capacity to carry out swabbing on the original scheduled date Saturday 19 September, so it was scheduled for Monday 21 September, and had to then be rescheduled to Thursday 24 September.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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853. To ask the Minister for Health the number of false positives for the PCR Covid-19 test; and the percentage of the results of these tests are as a result of Covid-19 material that is older than two weeks or is non-infectious [26644/20]

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.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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854. To ask the Minister for Health the contracts and services that have been put in place with the network of 46 laboratories contracted by the State or by its agents to provide Covid-19 testing services; the names and addresses of the laboratories; if they are public or private; the amount expended to date on the contracts; the estimated amount that will be spent on same; the services that will be provided under the contracts; the duration of same; the indemnity arrangements that have been made in respect of the laboratories; if there is one template contract or more in use; and if a copy of the contracts will be released [26645/20]

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.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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855. To ask the Minister for Health the logistics provider whose contract has been extended to include Covid-19 testing; the address of the company; the testing services the company has been contracted to provide; the identity of the contracting party; the duration of the contract; the amount expended to date on the contract; the estimated amount to be spent on same; and the indemnity arrangements that have been made in this regard [26646/20]

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.