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The health service faces a “key challenge” to speed up the response time for coronavirus test results once the delay is eliminated later this week, Health Minister Simon Harris said.
Harris said the Health Service Executive still has “work to do” to increase the speed at which it can produce test results among the broader community.
However, the Minister has said the tests will only be one of several factors to determine whether restrictions to slow the spread of the virus can be eased in three weeks.
The restrictions will remain in effect until May 5, and Harris and Dr. Tony Holohan, the Medical Director, raised the possibility of easing some measures at that time.
But both said the social distancing restrictions would remain in place until a coronavirus vaccine is found. A team from Oxford University has expressed confidence that a vaccine could be ready by September, although other experts say it could take a year or more.
Last night it was announced that 31 more people have died from Covid-19 in the Republic. There are now 10,647 known cases of coronavirus in the state, and 365 people have died from the virus.
Health officials announced another 527 confirmed cases on Monday, along with an additional 465 positive cases from tests sent to a German laboratory to eliminate the delay.
Testing backlog
HSE Executive Director Paul Reid said the delay in testing had been reduced from a high point of about 35,000 people expecting results to about 11,000.
He said at a briefing in Dublin that 25 laboratories were now being used to examine Covid-19 tests, including 20 in hospitals, the national laboratory at UCD, a Department of Agriculture facility and in Germany. Reid said nearly 8,000 tests were completed on Saturday.
“That order book will continue to shrink and will shrink entirely by the end of this week,” he said.
Six deaths were announced in Northern Ireland, bringing the total number of deaths to 124. An additional 76 cases of coronavirus were confirmed. A total of 1,882 cases have been identified in the North.
Social distancing
Although Mr. Harris raised the possibility of easing some restrictions, which would be limited in the beginning, he warned: “There will be a magic spot in early May where life as we knew it before the coronavirus can resume.” I think honestly, social distancing will continue to be a very important part of life, not just in Ireland but around the world until we get a vaccine or effective treatment for coronavirus. ”
He said that the key indicators to consider in the coming weeks will be the growth rate of the virus, the average number of people in intensive care units and the rate of reproduction of the virus, which is the rate that measures how many people each person infects. . it is likely to transmit the virus to.
Harris said the next three weeks will be crucial in stopping the spread of the coronavirus. He appealed to people to continue to adhere to the current rules and recommendations.
There are now 10,647 known cases of coronavirus in the state, and 365 people have died from the virus. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw / The Irish Times
The state’s ability to test and locate contacts would also be a consideration to ease restrictions, he said. He said the “key challenge” from the time the backlog is cleared is to speed up the change in test results to 48 hours.
“In the hospital setting they are now paying off very quickly, which is important, but they still have a little work to do in the community setting.”
Dr. Holohan said that any relaxation of the restrictions would be conditional. “As we identify a restriction that we could alleviate or eliminate, there is a possibility that the risk of infection increases and increases more than we think, and we have to be able to detect and respond to that quickly,” he said. He said.
The European Commission is expected to urge national governments this week to coordinate their exit from the coronavirus blockades as it seeks to avoid any recurrence of the confusion that marked the beginning of the crisis. It will advise governments to give advance notice of plans to relax border controls, reopen stores, and relax confinement restrictions.
‘Watch time’
Speaking in Geneva, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged caution on the movements of the countries to lift the closing conditions. He said that much was still unknown about the behavior of the coronavirus and emphasized that case finding, testing and isolation were still crucial.
“We know that in some countries, Covid-19 cases double every three to four days. However, although Covid-19 accelerates very fast, it decelerates much more slowly. In other words, the descent is much slower than the ascent. “
When asked if Europe was approaching a turning point in the pandemic, Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergency program, said: “We look at the number of confirmed cases and the number of hospitalizations as the first indicator that things may be stabilizing and we are certainly seeing that.
“Now is the time for vigilance, now is the time to double, now is the time to be very, very careful. That does not mean that countries cannot begin to create an exit strategy. “
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