Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
2980. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health if the HSE guidelines in relation to close contacts and testing will be updated due to the Covid-19 delta variant; if it is due to remain the same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39771/21]
View answerTesting and contact tracing continues to be a key component of the response to the pandemic. In line with evolving public health policy advice, the HSE has put in place a comprehensive, reliable and responsive testing and tracing operation. The testing and tracing service is kept under constant review to respond to changing circumstances, including those caused by the Delta variant.
The HSE currently has swabbing capacity of 175,000 tests per week across community, acute serial and outbreak programmes. Demand for testing and tracing is currently high but every community test centre around the country currently accepts walk-ins. Alternatively, a test can be booked on the new online booking portal for any nearby test centre.
Contact Tracing Centres operate 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and are fully rostered every day. The dedicated workforce, now totalling 930 Contact Tracers, has been key to ensuring adequate capacity for contact tracing up to 1,600 detected cases per day. This involves full data gathering and phone calls to all cases and their contacts. The service can now deploy digital mechanisms to significantly increase capacity and continue to contact trace through surge periods if the daily rate goes above 1,600 cases a day.
In response to the ongoing effort to contain the spread of the virus, the HSE has indicated that it is aiming to increase capacity to around 30,000 swabs per day in community and acute settings. This will be done through extending hours at swabbing centres, expanding the number of open sites, and increasing the level of capacity within each of them, including through a targeted use of the support provided by the National Ambulance Service. The HSE has indicated its intention to use lateral flow antigen tests for self-testing by close contacts should challenges in the demand for PCR testing capacity arise. Furthermore, close contacts who have been fully vaccinated are no longer referred automatically for testing but the contact tracing team advises the person depending on circumstances.
The continuation of certain enhanced contact tracing measures is not sustainable or appropriate in terms of balance of benefit against available resources. Due to changes in the proportion of cases with variants of concern in Ireland, guidance relating to contact tracing is currently being reviewed and will be updated in due course. The HSE has indicated that measures under consideration include modifying call length, adapting the number of calls conducted, enhanced use of digital channels and use of text messaging of close contacts for arranging tests. These measure which are kept under review will ensure that the public health response is fit for purpose and responsive to the current epidemiological situation.
The testing and tracing programme undergoes continual evaluation and development in response to changing demands and evolving evidence. This includes keeping the public health guidance relating to the Delta variant under continuing review and the guidance is updated and published on a regular basis on the website of the HPSC.
