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. 

Defence Forces Defence Forces

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.”