AN 89-YEAR-OLD MAN who passed away in a nursing home today had been waiting 15 days for the results of his Covid-19 test to come back, according to his family. 

Anne Mooney was originally going on RTÉ’s Liveline to talk about how her dad had been isolated for the past 15 days while waiting for the results of his Covid-19 test.

However, Anne’s father, Jerry Ryan, sadly passed away a half hour before she spoke to Joe Duffy. Jerry was to turn 90 next month.

There are currently eight other residents in Jerry’s nursing home waiting on results along with a number of staff members, according to Anne.  

She said that the head of the nursing home made contact with Health Minister Simon Harris over the length of time she and others were being made wait for their results. 

“She was told by the HSE that they were part of the community and that the results have gone in with the communities,” Anne said.

That’s wrong. These are our most vulnerable people.

The recorded number of Covid-19 clusters in the country’s nursing homes has reached 100, according to the latest figures from the HPSC.

As of 6 April, 52 of the clusters were in the east of the country, 20 in the northeast and 13 in the west.

Nursing homes now account for 33.3% of Covid-19 clusters in the country.

Before Jerry passed away, Anne said the family was allowed to go in to see him individually, fully gowned up in PPE, each staying for just 10 minutes.

“I had a video call with him last night, singing Sweet Sixteen, himself and his carer, he was mad about her and her about him,” Anne said. 

“He thanked me for getting him Holy Communion because he wanted to make his confession.”

As Jerry never got his test results back, it is not known whether he died of Covid-19. Anne says he was sick for the last three weeks and was initially being treated for a chest infection but was placed in isolation per protocol. 

Jerry responded well to antibiotics at first but went downhill in the last week. 

Anne said she was going to call her parish priest in Newbridge to see if they can hold a service for her father. 

This evening health officials confirmed a further 500 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland and another 28 deaths of patients diagnosed with the disease.

There are now 6,574 confirmed cases in the country. Almost 53,000 tests for the virus have been conducted.