Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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701. To ask the Minister for Health the measures he has taken to protect Ireland from the new strain of Covid-19 that has emerged in Denmark; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36219/20]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Once my Department became aware of the cluster of human cases of the SARS-CoV-2 variant in Denmark associated with mink farms on 5 November last, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) took a number of precautionary and appropriate measures. 

The NPHET held a initial risk assessment meeting with further meetings held over the course of the following days to identify what measures, on a precautionary basis, that should be put in place in this country in response to this issue.  These precautionary measures included actions to be taken by a number of State organisations and other Government Departments such as the HSE and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. 

Frontline clinicians were also immediately alerted to the importance of travel history in relation to people presenting for testing and the specific self-isolation recommendations for those who had travelled from Denmark. This information was also communicated by way of announcements on planes and made available at other points of entry onto the island. In addition, any testing that might need to be done in respect of anyone who had travelled from Denmark would be sent to the National Virus Reference Laboratory to undertake the kind of genome sequencing that was done in Denmark that allowed this strain to be identified in the first instance.  

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has now made available guidance based on some of its preliminary assessments of the emergence of this strain, available at: https://www.who.int/csr/don/06-november-2020-mink-associated-sars-cov2-denmark/en/ and the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) have published a Rapid Risk Assessment in relation to the overall level of risk to human health posed by the SARS-CoV-2 mink-related variants, available at:

You may wish to note that the precautionary prevention measures identified by the Government and that are already in place here are in line with the recommendations of the WHO and the ECDC.

The HSE has advised that they have now completed the first phase of testing of mink farm workers and their household contacts across all three mink farm sites in Ireland. They have further advised that it is planned to carry out these tests on a weekly basis to review and assess any outcomes.

I can assure the Deputy that my Department and the HSE are working very closely with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine on this matter, and will continue to do so.