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The Minister of Continuing and Higher Education said that if we get to a situation in this country where we need more than 100,000 Covid-19 tests a week, “we are in a very, very bad place.”
Simon Harris said that Ireland is testing more people for Covid-19 than most other European countries, but admitted that more investment is needed.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics, he said that around 14,000 tests are being carried out a day at the moment, the vast majority of which are negative.
Harris said, “What we have to do here, each and every one of us, is reduce the spread of this virus.”
He said there has been a “significant investment in additional staff” to improve response times in the community, and that a dedicated workforce is being created specifically for testing.
He acknowledged that “it is absolutely necessary to continue investing in our test and trace infrastructure,” but there is no need to mislead people by suggesting that an increase in test capacity would reduce the need for restrictions.
“We need to increase the testing infrastructure and we are doing it, but we also need to reduce the need for people to get tested.”
Harris said the government “acted very quickly” on the advice of NPHET from the National Public Health Emergency Team earlier this week.
“There is a very, very narrow window here now, where we Irish have a choice,” he said. “We are at a crossroads. This could be one of two ways. We have to act now to make sure we don’t go back to where we were in March or April.”
He said “swift action” was taken in Kildare, Laois and Offaly, and that simply closing meat factories in those counties would not have been enough.
“The doctors disagreed [with shutting plants] because where do the meat plant people live? “He said.” They live in the community and it was very important that we not allow the spread of the virus. Serial tests were carried out. “
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We are at a crossroads with the coronavirus
Solidarity: People Before Profits TD Paul Murphy said it is “infuriating” that we do not have the necessary test and trace capability six months after the start of the pandemic.
At the core of any plan to manage Covid-19 should be thorough monitoring and testing, he added.
“The government made a big problem this week about reaching a million tests. But Denmark, which has only a million more people than Ireland, reached three million tests in the last week. So it is completely inadequate; it is clear that the government tried to make it cheap, and now we are going to pay the price. “
Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns said a warning from Health Service Executive CEO Paul Reid that we don’t have the capacity to test as much as we need is “incredibly troubling.”
He said this, along with the “mixed messages”, has caused “so much discomfort.”
“There is such a lack of clarity that people must feel confident that these new guidelines can be met.”
Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster said the government “had all summer” to prepare for the massive tests and they did not.
He said both massive testing and a 24-hour response time are needed. “We can pay for the tests or we can pay for the closing,” he said.
Move other areas to level 3 ‘a possibility’
On the other hand, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said that “it is a possibility” that other parts of the country will move to Level 3 restrictions in an attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, he said that he hopes we can avoid that, but we must be careful.
This “is not just a Dublin problem,” he said, calling on the rest of the country to increase their efforts.
“It’s not easy, nobody wants to be doing it,” he said. “But that systematic approach that has been implemented now will help and is key to managing all of this.”
Ryan said the testing capacity has increased and has been effective.
“There was a 25% increase last week compared to the previous week and the system was manageable,” he said. “There were about 15,000 tests a day, which is close to the capacity we have.”
He said more could be done and that is why HealthService Executive is deploying additional staff, but compared to other jurisdictions, “our system is holding up.”
The best way to ensure that the test system can continue to function is to “stop the virus in its tracks,” he added.
Ryan said it is not the fault of the bars and restaurants that restrictions have been introduced, and they all agree that the hotel industry has done “everything possible to try to protect its customers.”
“But there is a problem,” he said. “Now we have the virus in our community. And it is not just as it was a few months ago where it could be identified in various factories or other centers, it is out there quite widely.”
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