Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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299. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 844 of 17 February 2021, if private providers of Covid-19 antigen tests are required to report their results to the Chief Medical Officer given that the tests do not go to a laboratory; the way these antigen tests are accounted for in daily case figures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10776/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As I indicated in response to Parliamentary Question 844 of 17 February 2021, under the Infectious Disease Regulations (S.I. No. 53/2020 - Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Regulations 2020 which amended the Infectious Diseases Regulations 1981 (S.I. No. 390 of 1981), all medical practitioners, including clinical directors of diagnostic laboratories, are required to notify the Medical Officer of Health / Director of Public Health of certain diseases, including COVID-19.

The Medical Officer of Health also reports such cases onwards to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC). This is to ensure that test results are reported to relevant stakeholders for monitoring and surveillance purposes and to investigate cases, thus preventing spread of infection and further cases. This requirement also applies to all private testing services who are, therefore, legally obliged to report positive Covid-19 case to the relevant authorities.

Persons who test positive from an antigen test from a private company will not be reported to the HSE. These are unvalidated tests taken outside of the national testing strategy or without appropriate clinical governance and operational arrangements. In my answer to Parliamentary Questions 682, 683 and 684 of the same date from the same Deputy, I drew attention to the factual, up to date and accessible public facing information on private testing published on the HSE website . The HSE advises that if you test positive in this case, you should self-isolate and call your GP. They will arrange for you to get a free PCR test within the public testing system.

The NPHET (National Public Health Emergency Team) considers the use of Antigen Detection Tests (ADTs) on an ongoing basis and has endorsed recommendations on the use of ADTs that have been validated as a supplement to PCR testing in certain situations, and particularly when the availability of PCR tests may be limited.

The HSE is currently putting in place deployment options for the use of ADTs for specific indications in the acute hospital setting and as part of the response to outbreaks in the community setting in symptomatic vulnerable populations and their close contacts, supported by appropriate clinical governance and operational arrangements. This includes updating the case definition for SARS-CoV-2 to accept notification of positive results from ADTs undertaken in the public health system and reporting of such cases to the COVID Care tracker and to the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) information system developed to manage the surveillance and control of infectious diseases in Ireland.