HIGH FLYERS LAUNCH NEW AIRPORT TEST
TWO Irish pilots are offering drive-through Covid testing beside Dublin Airport with results in under half an hour.
Fiona O’Flaherty and Niamh Power, who both had previous careers in different medical fields, have set up the Covid testing centre in Furry Park in Santry, a five-minute drive from Dublin Airport.
Ms O’Flaherty, who along with Ms Power worked for the HSE flying personal protective equipment to Ireland from China, said they set up the company V1Medical to provide testing to those who may not meet the criteria for a Covid test from the HSE.
‘There was nowhere available just to get a reassurance test or a test if you weren’t feeling great, but you didn’t have the classic symptoms,’ she told the Mail yesterday.
Ms O’Flaherty said she had wanted a reassurance test before visiting her own parents after a trip abroad.
‘We’re essential workers, we were coming in off flights and we’re exempt from quarantine, but I still didn’t feel comfortable going to go see my parents. I would have loved to have had some sort of quick test to give a bit of reassurance to them. Maybe to have dinner with them, not hug them, just have dinner with them.’
The company is charging €95 for rapid tests, and can also send mobile testing teams to homes, workplaces or social gatherings.
Bookings are being made for the festive period with Christmas Eve set to be the firm’s busiest day to date.
‘With Christmas coming up we have a lot of bookings from people who are just trying to be safer when they go to see their family,’ Ms O’Flaherty told the Mail.
V1Medical is using rapid antigen testing, which is not currently recognised by the HSE but is in use in other European countries, particularly in airports.
The Roche Rapid Antigen Tests are conducted on site and do not need to be sent to a lab. V1Medical said it can have results for patients within 30 minutes.
‘They are a great tool in combination with PCR. We’re not trying to replace the HSE, we’re trying to supplement it,’ Ms O’Flaherty said. The business partners met more than 20 years ago while studying to become pilots. Before that, Ms O’Flaherty did a degree in biotechnology while Ms Power did a degree in medi c i n e in UCD.
Tests can be booked online at V1Medical.ie for the drivethrough facility or for workplace/group testing.
‘People trying to be safer’