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IN THE EARLY hours this morning, the Air Corps completed the delivery of Irish Covid-19 tests to Germany.
Today’s trip is the first of many set to be undertaken by No. 1 Operations Wing of the Air Corps in the coming weeks, with the newly-acquired Pilatus PC-12 aircraft used.
The Defence Forces said it’s been tasked by the government to deliver these tests to Germany as “part of the continued HSE response to increase Covid-19 in Ireland”.
Health authorities have said that increased testing capacity will be essential to allow Ireland to reopen again, and the HSE aims to be in a position to provide 100,000 tests a week by the middle of this month.
Testing has been ramped up in nursing homes for staff and residents in the last two weeks as over 360 clusters of Covid-19 have been identified in residential care settings around the country.
This evening, it was confirmed that the death toll in Ireland from Covid-19 has now exceeded 1,300 with the number of confirmed cases now at 21,506.
To clear a backlog of testing last month, the services of a laboratory in Germany were used to assist in providing results for these tests.
The Defence Forces will continue to deliver tests to be analysed in Germany in the coming weeks.
It added in a statement: “This task is being coordinated by the Air Corps and the Defence Forces Joint Task Force. The deliveries will be supplemented by the CASA CN235 aircraft in order to ensure redundancy in this State effort.”
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Seriously with all the pharmaceutical companies and highly educated skill set we have here can we not set up our own lab for testing? This is not going to end next week . Testing will need to be done for weeks potentially years if no vacinnes are developed. If someone says we don’t have the materials .. then get the materials. Teach a man to fish an all that. We must we depend on other nations so much..
@Simon F: No kidding – running to Germany to help us with lab work…..after we bailed out their banks!
@Simon F: we have a lab in phoenix park run by UCD but just haven’t the capacity needed at the moment, who really cares if the testing is done in Azerbaijan as long as the capacity needed is being done
@Jon Boylan: We didn’t bail out German Banks.
@Simon F: We have our own labs for testing and have been using them constantly.
This simply helps increase our capacity
@Simon F: In recent years there were decisions made to close testing labs here – outsourcing to places like the US – e.g. for Cervical screening, when imvestmemt should have been made locally. We lost a lot of skills and capacity as a result.
@Darren Callaghan: Well it does matter. Flying them to Germany in a turboprop adds to the time it will take to get the results.
@Jon Boylan: actually, we bailed out our banks, not theirs
I thought we were already getting testing done in Germany no??
@Lydia McLoughlin: correct. This is deemed news because the air Corp are involved
@DeWitt: We had a deal with them to clear our backlog which finished ablut 2 weeks ago. This is a new plan to send tests over regularly to maintain a high amount of tests going forward.
Test test test, trace and treatment if needs be well done air corps on unwavering commitment to whatever task put their way
I though we had increased our laboratory capacity? So we’re still dependent on external labs to analyse tests!
@Pat Fitzpatrick: so what. We dont grow our own food, produce our own medicine. As long as it done well and within budget.
@DeWitt: yea we do!
@Pat Fitzpatrick: they are a bit lost. My results never arrived test done 19th of march.
Pilatus PC-12. Cracking bit of kit, great choice of aircraft for our air services.
@Eric Dunn: Could do with a C130
@Dave Byrne: there’s two CN 195′s ordered.. just as good… larger than the current Casablanca, CN235…
@Eric Dunn: lol.
@Daniel Morrissey: C-295 is nice piece of kit but it’s not “just as good” as a C-130. With a Herc we could do inter theatre lift or stratevac our troops from the Lebanon or Syria (which looks like it might be necessary given recent performance of the UN) – that’s not something we could do with a C-295 optimised for marpat.
@Mike McGann: ???
@Eric Dunn: Totally agree, Pilatus PC12/47E is an ideal choice, versatile, highly efficient, state of the art and great value for multi purpose mission capability. Hats off to the IAC.
John Travolta has a more impressive Air Force than us.
Hang on ! I thought we were already getting testing done in Germany? Or was that more Varadkar / Harris waffle ? Ah I just realised maybe that was for the other 18 Covids that Harris knew about. I’m sure someone who’s brighter than I am can find where it was reported before about German testing
@Tony Kennedy: yaaaaawwwwnnnn
@Tony Kennedy: at least it would take 2 hours not 8 like that piece of crud.
@Tony Kennedy: yes we were, with Ryanair and Aer Lingus delivering the tests but cause the Aer Corps got a new dinky toy and want to break it in it’s considered news
Great to see testing increased but the logistics are hardly newsworthy?
@Mattress Dick: why not?
@Ed Byrne: waste of money use commercial aircraft. DHL could have tests there quicker
They should out source the flying to Ryanair and aer lingus to keep their pilots eye in and reduce all their recertification later on.
@ThatLJD: Why use private companies when the state has suitable assests of its own?
@Joe Bloggs: it doesn’t
@Joe Bloggs: could probably get it at a reduced rate. Benefit in it for both. It’s not as if they’ve schedules to meet elsewhere.
@DeWitt: of course it does, who else owns the air corp aircraft if not the state? They are system assets bring flown by state employees.
@DeWitt: What do you call the PC-12, if not a state asset? If this aircraft is suitable for the job, why not use it?
@ThatLJD: I suppose you own a car but you don’t use it, you get taxi’s all the time.
@ThatLJD: Doesn’t seem economic or environmentally friendly to fly a B737 of A320 to Germany to transport a few boxes when they can loaded into a PC-12 for a fraction of the cost.
@Pat Farrelly: kinda missed the point I was trying to make, its OK.
@Pat Farrelly: careful now, no need for the apostrophe..
@ThatLJD: “keep their pilots eye in”
They are flying planes not playing golf.
If I get tested today and pick up the virus tomorrow, or worse still, on the way home, then the test was useless. This is ongoing pandemic, just because you’ve been tested only means that you were clear at that moment. 6 feet apart or 6 feet under, the choice is yours. Keep safe.
@John Cassin: This is all part of promoting our unelected government. just like the big cash incentives that Paschal has publically anounced in order to get SME up and running again
But when you read the small print that this only applies when FG are back in government
One the main advantages of this plane is it can land at a lot more Airports/Aerodromes in Ireland…
Smart move… We will probably be able to backfill this over time but for now take it where we can get it…
We need high testing numbers to reopen the economy and thanks to Germany for sharing there capacity…
@Tony Kennedy: that’s no great shock that numbers are increasing of confirmed cases if its a backlog. Much better look at the ICU numbers and tragic deaths as a metric to how we are dealing with pandemic.
@Tony Kennedy: A 3 week old article from a British tabloid rag is the best you could do? Sky news will report on other European countries Covid crisis bar their own. Today they reported on the dwindling revenues of a caravan park in Cornwall. I wouldn’t reply on the British media for reliable information.
In a banger of a plane too! We must be a laughing stock.
@Pád: it’s less than 2 months old …
Wer gona need a bigger plane
I bet the German airforce felt very intimidated whem they saw that beast of an aircraft in the sky
@Daithi De Roiste: Mein Gott in Himmel!!!!
Will those waiting for results, or those who have their tests reviewed in Germany be told their information has been sent abroad?
Are there no private labs , military labs , universities , biotech companies etc helping with testing ? I thought Germany was only used to diminish a backlog .
PC-12 is a laughable piece of junk. Swiss junk. Can we not do better than this…. really???
8 weeks on, is that satisfactory,?
Is it because the Aer Corp is just an occasionallly ready & available outfit?
Given that our commercial air enterpreneurs rustled up a top range Boeing, & ALT the crews to fly it to China on numerous flights to freight urgent PPE, & the fact that testing results have been a bottleneck from midMarch, surely the Aer Corp support should be sharper.
We were invaded by this virus, so were they invasion ready?
Amazing to see all the comments from the experts who know it all.
It’s not like smelling a piece of food to see if it’s ok.
1 second job , there is a process.
I notice that no one is calculating the mortality rate any more, I know that the infection and death rates are imprecise, but I did a simple calculation of percentage of death to number of infected and got 6% for Ireland. This seemed quite high, so I did a comparative calculation for France and got 19%, Italy : 14%, Germany : 4%, UK : 15%, Spain : 12%, Switzerland : 5%, South Korea : 2%, The U. S. A. : 6%. So now my question is, why is France, with supposedly one of the best health systems in the world, so high…?
Defo a sign for laboratory expansions and new jobs across the Island
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