Ireland's Health Service Executive ‘working hard’ to resolve shortage of coronavirus testing materials
Officials are “working hard” to resolve a shortage of coronavirus testing materials, the Health Service Executive has said.
HSE CEO Paul Reid asked the public to “bear with us” as it tries to address the worldwide issue.
His comments come after it emerged that Ireland is falling short of the target number of tests being carried out each day.
The British Government has also come under pressure to rapidly increase testing with some medics going into self-isolation when they are needed on the frontline because they have not got a diagnosis.
In a tweet, Mr Reid said: “In a short time we have scaled up on, testing centres, testing kits, contact tracers, nbr of Labs, hospital beds, ICU, ventilators, PPE, staff.
“Our current major issue is ‘reagents’ for labs.
“A worldwide shortage. We are working hard to fix this. Bear with us.”
On Wednesday, it was confirmed there had been 14 more deaths and 212 new cases of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland.
Eighty-five people have died since the outbreak began in the Republic.
On Thursday the head of the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at the Royal College of Surgeons said that increasing contact tracing of people with symptoms would work more effectively than waiting for test results.
Professor Ruairi Brugha told RTE’s Morning Ireland: “Instead of having delays of up to 10 days, we can move in when people have symptoms and start contact tracing at that point.”
Across the sea in England, NHS frontline staff are forced into self-isolation when they are most needed because tests are not available to show whether they are clear of the disease.
The Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association also said staff testing is desperately needed.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove acknowledged the Government needed to go "further, faster” but said there was a shortage of chemicals needed for the tests on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson had now promised to "ramp up" testing for Covid-19 in the UK and said it will be key to "unlocking the puzzle" of stopping the deadly virus.
Currently, around 8,000 tests a day are being carried out, and the Government has admitted only 2,000 of the half a million NHS staff on the frontline have so far been tested.
The coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 940,000 people worldwide and over 47,000 deaths have been recorded.
