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A senior HSE official questioned a claim by Fianna Fáil leader that 51,000 people are awaiting swab tests to detect coronavirus.
Micheál Martin described the figure after he and other opposition leaders received an official briefing on the Covid-19 crisis.
He said 53,000 tests had been completed to date in Ireland, but 51,000 people were waiting for appointments to collect swab samples.
Later, at the press conference of the National Public Health Emergency Team, Dr. Colm Henry, clinical director of HSE, questioned the figure.
When asked about the 51,000 figure, he replied, “I don’t know where that came from.”
Dr. Henry said that Ireland has the capacity to meet the current demand for tests, but that the processing of the results was hampered by the lack of chemical reagents needed to analyze samples in laboratories.
Martin and other party leaders attended a briefing with HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid and Irish Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan on Thursday afternoon.
Subsequently, the leader of Fianna Fáil said Ireland “has not yet” reached the peak of the outbreak.
“We are making progress as a country in terms of dealing with this,” he added.
“The areas of greatest concern that were articulated, which I would have raised, of course, were the current problems related to PPE, the situation in relation to nursing homes and the whole situation around the tests.
“There are around 53,000 tests that have been completed to date. There are around 51,000 people waiting for appointments to take a swab and there appears to be still a significant amount of work to be done on the test front.
“What was identified was a laboratory capacity problem in terms of acquiring more laboratories, there were previous problems with various components of the testing process.”
It concerns me in terms of propping up and supporting our nursing home.
Martin added: “We are not as a country where I would like to be in terms of the volume of evidence and the change in terms of evidence. The goal is to reach a stricter change in 48 hours.
“As of today’s briefing, we would be in the top five within the European Union in terms of the volume of people who have been evaluated.”
Martin said there was a lot of attention at the coronavirus outbreak briefing at 137 nursing homes in Ireland.
“I am concerned there in terms of propping up and supporting our nursing home,” he said.
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