Tullamore has been chosen as one of the five locations for “walk-in” Covid-19 testing because of a relatively high rate of infection in Co Offaly, the HSE’s Director of Public Health for the Midlands has said.
Dr Una Fallon said high rates in Offaly had been “driven” by a few incidents which now had to “play out.”
It comes as five new walk-in testing centres, aimed at finding asymptomatic cases of the virus, open today in Dublin and Offaly.
Dr Fallon told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that people were invited to get tested at one of the five test centres if for some reason they suspected they could have Covid-19.
“The purpose is to assess the level of asymptomatic infection in the community,” she said.
Four of the centres will be located in the capital — at the National Aquatic Centre in Blanchardstown, Grangegorman Primary Care Centre, Tallaght Stadium and Irishtown Stadium — while there will be one at Tullamore Leisure Centre.
Offaly outbreaks
Dr Fallon said that the current high rates of infection in Offaly “are likely to come down” once certain outbreaks subside.
“We have an outbreak in one particular workplace and we have done a lot of testing in that setting and uncovered a lot of asymptomatic infection and we are doing another round of testing,” she said.
Dr Fallon added that the HSE believes that all cases had been detected in connection with another outbreak in a crèche.
She expects the situation in Offaly to pass and appealed to people ahead of the Easter holidays “to have a quiet Easter and to enjoy the outdoors but stay away from other people.”
Free testing
The free testing at the walk-in centres was specifically for those who did not have symptoms and were aged 16 and over, Dr Fallon explained. People needed to bring ID and a valid mobile phone number.
If a person tested positive after being tested at one of the walk-in centres, they would be contacted by a contact tracing centre.
Dr Fallon said that contact tracing going back 14 days, and asking people about every individual they were in contact with, was not always an efficient way to determine the source of infection.
“For every case that is associated with any complicated setting, they get referred back to us and we take a history that is specific to that setting,” she said.
