Violet-Anne Wynne
Question:590. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health the status of the use of antigen testing as Ireland continues with the gradual reopening of society. [44711/21]
View answerTuesday, 21 September 2021
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Written answers
Considerable work has been undertaken to date to evaluate the potential use of rapid antigen detection tests (RADTs) in an Irish context and this will continue on an ongoing basis.
In the health sector, the HSE has deployed rapid antigen tests for use for specific indications in the acute hospital setting, and as part of the response to outbreaks in the community setting amongst vulnerable populations, 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 rapid antigen tests 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. In response to significantly increased demand for testing caused by the Delta variant, the HSE has planned the deployment of self-swab antigen tests for the testing of close contacts, should challenges in the demand for PCR testing capacity arise. Those in receipt of a ‘detected’ result from an antigen test will be referred for a confirmatory PCR test.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, supported by the HSE, has implemented an antigen testing programme in food processing facilities, supplementing the PCR serial testing programme there. These tests are being carried out under clinical governance arrangements put in place by the Department of Agriculture. Further pilot programmes are underway in a number of further and higher level institutions in the education sector, and amongst staff in early learning and childcare settings. An additional pilot programme for staff of Residential Care Facilities for Older Persons will commence on the 20th September. These pilots will contribute to an improved understanding of the feasibility of large-scale RADT usage in these settings.
The “Report of the COVID-19 Rapid Testing Group” which was chaired at my request by the Government’s chief scientific adviser, Professor Mark Ferguson, and published on 1 April 2021, made a number of recommendations for sectors outside the health sector and these are a matter for the Ministers and Departments with responsibility for the sectors concerned.
I have established an Expert Advisory Group on Rapid Testing, chaired by Professor Mary Horgan, Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Cork University Hospital and President of the Royal College of Physicians. The group will support and advise government departments, who are responsible for progressing pilots and the rollout of rapid tests in their respective sectors. It will also be responsible for communicating to the general public.
The membership of the group and it's terms of reference are available at www.gov.ie/en/press-release/e2767-minister-donnelly-establishes-expert-advisory-group-on-rapid-testing/ . Minutes of the Groups meetings are available at www.gov.ie/en/collection/8b585-minutes-and-agendas-from-meetings-of-the-rapid-testing-expert-advisory-group/
On an ongoing basis, the National Public Health Emergency Team considers and reviews how best to target testing to detect, and mitigate the impact of, the virus across the population. This includes keeping Ireland’s national testing and tracing policy under continuing review.