A THIRD ADDITIONAL Covid-19 testing centre to open this week will start operating in Swords tomorrow.
It joins two new centres that started running this week in Athlone and Leopardstown, which opened yesterday and today respectively, as the HSE tries to meet the demand for testing.
The HSE confirmed to The Journal that it expects the three new centres will continue to operate beyond this week.
The additional centres at Cork, Shannon and Dublin Airport that opened last week are “all continuing to operate, increasing capacity,” the HSE said.
“We are also operating additional mobile test centres. These are reviewed and moved on a daily basis,” it said.
Mobile centres were open yesterday and today in Tuam, Carlow and Narraghmore.
In Nexus, Blanchardstown, a mobile centre is open 10am to 6pm with no currently-planned closure date.
219,628 Covid-19 tests have been completed in the last seven days, with a positivity rate of 14.1%.
Overall, since the start of the pandemic, there have been 8.9 million tests conducted with a positivity rate of 6.6%.
29,363 tests have been taken in the last 24 hours.
As the incidence of Covid-19 rose, the health system came under pressure in recent weeks to keep up with the demand for tests.
Last week, HSE CEO Paul Reid warned that resources to expand capacity for Covid-19 testing are “not infinite” as the system scaled up testing facilities.
He said that the level of Covid-19 cases was putting pressure on all parts of the health system, including GPs and ICUs, and that community transmission was still too high.
“We still remain extremely anxious from the healthcare system and the pressure that it’s putting on everybody concerned,” Reid said.
With reporting by Zuzia Whelan
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