Covid-19: Up to one-quarter of people sent for tests fail to turn up, says HSE

Up to one-quarter of people sent for Covid-19 testing are failing to turn up for their swabs, according to the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The failure of people to attend is becoming “an issue” at many swabbing sites around the country, HSE chief operations officer Anne O’Connor told a briefing yesterday.

No-shows account for up to 750 of the 3,000 people referred for testing each day, though the rate of non-attendance varies in different centres, she said.

If people failed to turn up, that meant their slot was not available for someone else, she pointed out. “It’s challenging, particularly when we have to have capacity for [testing] schools.”

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Almost 62,000 tests were processed last week, with a positivity rate of 1.3 per cent, HSE chief executive Paul Reid said.

This included 27,000 tests in the community, about 16,000 in hospital and another 16,000 carried out as part of serial testing among healthcare workers and in meat processing plants.

The number of close contacts attending for testing had improved from 60 per cent to 80 per cent and the proportion of those attending a week later had also improved, to 50 per cent, according to Mr Reid

Turnaround time

The HSE was able to meet all demand, he said, despite a three-fold increase in demand for community testing.

Mr Reid said the turnaround time from point of referral for a test to completion of contact tracing currently stood at 2.2 days.

New swabbing centres were to be established shortly in Blanchardstown and Dublin's inner city, he said.

Meanwhile, the HSE plans to recruit hundreds of new staff to swab patients for Covid-19 and trace contacts as part of a revamp of the service.

A campaign to recruit over 700 people to work in testing and contact tracing will start next week, according to Mr Reid.

Full- and part-time positions are available for the service, which operates 8am to 8pm, seven days a week.

No specific qualifications are required beyond the Leaving Certificate and the HSE has been in discussion with the Union of Students in Ireland about recruiting students for the roles, Mr Reid said.

Specialists

Additional public health specialists are also being recruited to improve staffing. Large numbers of HSE staff were redeployed from other areas of the health service during the pandemic but many have returned to their original roles.

The HSE chief said a national pandemic workforce needed to be created to deal with infectious disease threats as they occurred.

Parents of Leaving Cert students should develop “alternative ways” of celebrating their results next week in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, he also told the briefing.

He said he would encourage parents and guardian to “talk openly” with their Leaving Cert children about the risk of socialising after they get their results.

He acknowledged the “burden” placed on this group of young people through the loss of traditional milestones, and uncertainty, caused by the pandemic.

Mr Reid said young people had played a major role in supporting families during the pandemic, though a small minority had engaged in irresponsible behaviour that put other people at risk.

“However, we shouldn’t resort to shaming young people, particularly on social media,” he added.