One in four don’t turn up for their tests
AROUND one in four people every day may be losing out on Covid tests because they are not turning up to get checked.
As the number of cases rises, fears of a new lockdown grow and health officials try to concentrate on school testing, it has emerged that an astonishing 25% of people have simply not arrived for their test.
These are appointments someone else could have used, said HSE chief operations officer Anne O’Connor. And she added: ‘We want to put out a plea to people – to please attend.’
Officials are now warning that the numbers who don’t turn up are becoming an ‘issue’ at swabbing sites across the country.
Ms O’Connor said: ‘On a daily basis you can have 3,000 or 4,000 appointments, so if a quarter of those aren’t turning up, that is a significant number of appointments. It’s challenging as we have to have [testing] capacity for schools. As these appointments are automatically scheduled, we are finding there are sites where people are not availing, and that means it’s an appointment someone else could have used. We want to put out a plea to people to please attend.’
Paul Reid, head of the HSE, said there has been a significant increase in the number of close contacts attending their initial ‘day zero’ test, but that the number drops from 80% attendance to around 50% for the ‘seven-day’ test. Mr Reid said that around 8% of close contacts test positive. ‘While we have low positivity rate of 1.5% in overall tests, 8% of contacts test positive, and if you are symptomatic it’s closer to 20%,’ he added.
Dr Sarah Doyle, specialist in public health medicine, warned that one in five of close contacts who are symptomatic will be positive for Covid-19. ‘We would really urge people who are close contacts to make sure they turn up for the appointment,’ she said.
Ms O’Connor added: ‘It’s not an option to pursue people but we would ask people to work with us, and while we can’t police the population, we can encourage them to attend.’
Mr Reid said the turnaround time for a test is now 2.2 days over the last week. He urged people to ensure they provide the correct contact details for their close contacts. Mr Reid also said that serial testing in Direct Provision centres is expected to start next week with around 7,500 residents and some 500 staff to be tested.
It is expected to take around two weeks to complete the testing.
Mr Reid said a ‘key concern’ is health services outside of Covid-19. ‘We are very conscious that our hospitals are beginning to see people coming through in relation to... it might be issues in terms of the lockdown, whether it’s mental health issues or anxiety issues across younger people and older people, or indeed other services,’ he added.
Test ‘someone else could have used’