Calls grow for greater Covid-19 antigen testing to suppress summer wave

There have been growing calls for increased support for antigen testing in response to the increasing number of Covid-19 infections and rising numbers of people with the virus in hospital.

The increase in cases is being blamed on the BA. 4 and BA. 5 variants that are spreading more rapidly because of their ability to bypass immunity from past infection or vaccination.

The number of people with Covid-19 in hospital rose to 574 on Sunday, up from 537 the day before and 360 a week earlier, though a proportion of Covid-19 cases in hospital are incidental, meaning patients have been admitted for another condition and tested positive in hospital.

Kingston Mills, professor of experimental immunology at Trinity College Dublin, said people should be encouraged to carry out rapid antigen tests again if they have symptoms, and to isolate if necessary, but he did not believe there needed to be a return to mass PCR testing.

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“The numbers have significantly jumped and that is worrying. I didn’t think a week ago that there was going to be another serious wave but I am not so sure now,” he said.

Prof Mills said the Government should consider subsidising antigen tests in order to encourage more people to test themselves, even though the cost of the tests has fallen.

“If you have a family of five or six people and they want to test over several days, I suppose it does add up and if it was made free or subsidised, it would encourage people to do it,” he said.

Scientists have called for an increased State response to the growing number of infections.

Christine Loscher, professor of immunology at Dublin City University, said that providing free antigen tests would encourage more people to test themselves and to report positive tests.

“It is hard for people to monitor. Usually when you reported a positive antigen test, you were able to get a supply of antigen tests for other people in your household. You can’t get that any more,” Prof Loscher told RTE Radio over the weekend.

On Sunday, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly raised the possibility that mandatory mask-wearing could be reintroduced on public transport and in shops to suppress a summer wave.

The requirement to wear masks on public transport and in shops and other indoor public spaces expired in February, though masks are still advised on public transport and in hospitals.

Prof Mills said he felt mask-wearing had been dropped too quickly and that older and vulnerable people with underlying medical conditions should be encouraged to wear masks.

However, he said masks really only worked effectively if everyone wore them.

“It is either all or nothing really for it to be highly effective; everybody has to. It is not ideal for the people who want to protect themselves that they just wear masks,” he said.

“I don’t think we are at the stage yet where we should be going back to mask wearing.”

The nursing home sector rejected the Taoiseach’s suggestion that Covid-19 outbreaks in nursing homes were causing significant delays in the discharging of patients from hospitals, which in turn was putting pressure on hospital emergency departments.

Tadhg Daly, chief executive of Nursing Home Ireland, which represents private nursing home operators, said while care homes were experiencing an increase in Covid-19 cases and outbreaks, it was not reducing widespread capacity across the sector.

“I would be confident that there would be appropriate capacity there but maybe not in every location,” he said.