A NURSING HOME in Co Cork has become the first nursing home in Ireland to pilot innovative remote temperature checking software that can detect early Covid-19 warning symptoms in staff. 

The Covid-19 remote early warning system (Crew) was initially trialled at Cork University Hospital over the past two weeks. It’s now being trialled at Oaklodge Nursing Home in Cloyne. 

One of the most common symptoms in Covid-19 cases is a fever. 

The Crew system remotely checks the temperature of staff with a digital thermometer sensor. An alarm is triggered if their temperature gets too high, which is a warning to stay at home and self-isolate. 

“We are delighted to be the first nursing home in Ireland to trial the Crew software, which is currently in test phase before it can be rolled out nationally,” Oaklodge Nursing Home owner Diarmuid O Dálaigh said. 

“Thankfully, we currently have no coronavirus cases, and hope that this will help to continue to protect our staff and residents alike over the coming months.” 

At a HSE briefing on Friday, it was confirmed that long-term residential care centres where there had been confirmed Covid-19 cases would be prioritised for testing.

At the Department of Health’s briefing on Friday evening, it was updated to say that all nursing homes and other care centres would now be prioritised for testing.

This was announced after 11 residents at St Mary’s Hospital in Dublin who were confirmed to have Covid-19 died.

A further eight patients who were confirmed to have Covid-19 at a residential centre in Portlaoise, Co Laois, died over the bank holiday weekend.

The Crew system was developed by software development company 8 West Consulting, with the College of Medicine and Health at University College Cork and the Assert Centre and Tyndall Institute at UCC.