The HSE has stated it plans to downsize its Covid PCR testing facilities despite the country experiencing a “summer wave” of Covid-19 infections.
In a statement to the Irish Mirror, the HSE said that its plan is that there will be a “transition period” where “12 of our existing large test centres will move to smaller facilities over the summer with a further seven moves to follow as soon as possible.”
They went on to state that they intend to consolidate some facilities into one another - in Cork, Galway and Dublin North. "This will result in two testing centres in Cork and Tipperary and four centres in Dublin, alongside one in each of the other counties," a statement read.
Read More: Expert says latest Covid wave will not be like Alpha and Delta as concern is low
They stated that the process of moving to smaller centres had already begun.
The decision comes after much talk from officials and experts about the increase in the rate of Covid-19 infections in the country due to the highly transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 strains. 3,926 Covid-19 cases were confirmed in Ireland on Wednesday, made up of 1,223 positive PCR tests and 2,703 positive antigen tests. It's believed many more positive antigen tests are going unreported to the HSE.
As of Thursday, 20 people with Covid-19 are in ICU in Irish hospitals with a further 697 positive patients in other wards. Earlier this week, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said the increase in Covid cases in Ireland is cause for concern and said he couldn’t rule out the return of restrictions.
He said: “There’s no public advice whatsoever on any mandatory approaches, and in fact, we are not right now in that phase. We are in a phase that is around living with Covid, managing Covid. Of course, we don’t know what advice we will get in the future. It is possible that those advices will change in this current wave, but we have no advice to that effect at this time.”
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar, meanwhile, said that he believes the country can make it through this current wave without the reintroduction of restrictions.
“I think we will get over this summer wave without the need to impose any new restrictions, but obviously we’ll be guided by public health advice in that regard,” he said.
Experts have been stressing the importance of getting the booster vaccine as cases continue to rise. Chief Clinical Officer with the HSE, Dr Colm Henry, said there is an emerging trend among those who are hospitalised with the virus and not taking the vaccine.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne on Monday he said: “The harsh reality is that if you look at hospitalisations, 606 this morning, unfortunately over half have not received their booster and over a third haven't even got vaccinated in the first place.”
Stephen Donnelly highlighted the importance of the jab and encouraged those over 65 to get a second booster.
“If I had one message, it’s to ask those, particularly those over 65 and those who are immunosuppressed that haven’t yet got the second booster to do so,” he said on Tuesday.
Despite the rise in cases and concern in some quarters, the Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory at UCD, Dr Cillian de Gascun, sounded a positive note as he said, "we're not going back to a previous virus like Alpha and Delta."
Speaking on RTE radio on Thursday, Dr de Gascun said: "It's important to try to reassure people that while these viruses have a growth advantage and are more contagious than BA1 and BA2, it's a minor change in behaviour, we're not going back to a previous virus like Alpha and Delta.”
While there is no major cause for concern at this point, according to de Gascun, it is still too early to rule out the potential for these strains to cause more severe infections.
"There are other things we can do,” he said, “like look at how the virus is behaving in cells, the viral load, we can do some animal model work and, generally speaking, at the moment it's probably too early to definitively rule out the fact that these viruses might cause more severe disease.
"At the same time, there are no red flags at this stage. There are no major causes for concern."
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