CLOSED: TESTING GRINDS TO A HALT
MoS investigation discovers national centres abandoned as HSE admits just 1,200 samples are analysed every day
THE HSE has been forced to admit that only 1,200 tests for coronavirus are being carried out in the country every day, lower than previously thought and far lower than the 15,000 health officials say they can achieve in two weeks’ time.
After repeated requests for information from the Irish Mail on Sunday, the HSE last night finally issued the 1,200 figure on testing seen as vital to ‘flatten the curve’ and prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.
The HSE previously refused to disclose how many tests were being carried out, per day, but the figure is lower than the 1,500 tests the Government says is currently being analysed daily, with 3,000 tests being requested.
It comes as the MoS also reveals that at least five of the large community testing centres set up to allow for mass testing have been closed for several days, despite claims to the contrary by the HSE.
On Friday, the MoS visited three coronavirus testing centres – in Tallaght, Tullamore and Nowlan Park in Kilkenny – and found they were not operating. On Thursday we visited the centre in Croke Park and aboard the LE Samuel Beckett on Dublin’s Quays and neither was operating.
The Longford test centre in Connolly Barracks has yet to open.
However, on Friday, HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry insisted most of the country’s centres, some of which were forced to close last weekend as the State scrabbles for testing and protective equipment, were now ‘back up and running’.
We visited all the five centres again yesterday, and again none were operational.
This newspaper made repeated requests over the last week to ascertain the number of tests being carried out and whether they were in centres, in hospitals or at home.
On Thursday we asked how many Covid-19 tests had been carried out in the past ten days, but the HSE did not answer.
On Friday we asked how many swab tests had been taken each day over the last week and how many had been analysed and again the HSE did not provide figures.
Yesterday, we put it to them that the testing centres we had visited were closed over several days, and the press office finally came back with the figure of 1,200 per day.
A spokesperson also insisted that testing centres are open.
‘Community testing centres nationally are swabbing about 1,200 people per day currently,’ they said. ‘Enough centres are open to cater for these numbers. When more extensive testing recommences additional centres will reopen. The National Ambulance Service and acute hospitals are also swabbing people and the focus is on the prioritised groups, including healthcare workers.’
Earlier this week Dr Cillian De Gascun, of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said it was analysing 1,500 tests a day and was planning to ramp up to 5,000
But last night a leading GP insisted it was vital the authorities come clean with the public.
Galway-based Maitiú Ó Tuathail said: ‘It’s very important to be transparent with the people of Ireland who are doing a huge amount to stop the spiral of the coronavirus.
‘The key to coronavirus is testing. If we are to overcome corona we need to be testing everyone who needs to be tested. We can’t have any limitations on testing.
‘We were told there would be 5,000 tests done a day and that by the end of April there would be 15,000 done a day. It’s very important to be honest and transparent about the testing figures. Testing is the key to overcoming this.’
A mass testing programme such as South Korea’s is seen as vital to slow the spread of the disease so that hospitals do not become overwhelmed by the number of patients needing acute treatment, which could lead to mass deaths such as is happening in Italy and Spain.
But a global shortage of test kits and reagent chemicals to process them has left governments hunting to source sought-after supplies.
Ireland has gone from a policy of testing everyone who requested a test to only testing those with at least two symptoms, as well as frontline staff and those in at-risk categories in order to make better use of the scarce tests available.
Dr Ultan Power, Professor of Virology at Queen’s University Belfast, said we are ‘blind’ to the real number of people with the infection who are capable of spreading it due to roadblocks in testing.
He told the MoS: ‘If you increase the quantity of tests that are done, you’re going to increase the number of positives so you’ll get a much better indication of the percentage of folks that are actually positive at a given time and that’s what happened in South Korea. Their testing campaign was phenomenal. I would have a lot more confidence in the data they are generating, it would be a lot more robust than the data in Ireland or the UK.
‘Because of roadblocks in capacity to do these tests, they’re focusing on tests they consider to be the most urgent.’
In a statement, the HSE said: ‘Testing continues at community testing centres around the country which are opened and in use to meet demand, and to match laboratory capacity as appropriate.
‘Acknowledging the delay in testing, we are beginning direct contact tracing of high-risk groups in advance of test results.’
‘At least five centres have been closed, despite HSE’s claims’
‘We are blind to the real number with infection’