The rise in coronavirus cases and suspected infections has forced the Health Service Executive to reprioritise and ultimately ration its Covid-19 testing given its capacity to conduct 100,000 tests a week. The first warning sign for the HSE came on Monday when there were 13,000 referrals for testing from GPs, more than double the figure for the previous Monday. Nursing homesThe HSE justified this by noting that the positivity rate in symptomatic testing was running at six times the rate in serial testing in meat plants. HSE chief executive Paul Reid said it had 350 swabbers and 280 contact tracers working on any given day, all on 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. He hinted that the HSE may have to look at increasing the 100,000 weekly testing capacity if necessary.

Source: The Irish Times September 10, 2020 18:22 UTC