Access to Covid-19 tests no longer confined to high-risk groupings

The case definition for Covid-19 in Ireland has been relaxed for the second time in a week meaning that the vast majority of the population is now eligible for testing for the virus.

As of today anyone displaying at least one of the major symptoms of the coronavirus - they being a cough, fever, or shortness of breath - can be referred for a test by their GP.

The same applies to those suffering from an acute respiratory illness and who has been in contact with a confirmed or probable case of the virus within the last 40 days.

The new guidance which had been widely expected as the HSE ramps up its testing levels means that access to a test is no longer confined to high-risk groupings.

Once someone has been tested the new advice suggests that they stay home and self-isolate until their result has been delivered. If that result is positive the patient is advised to self-isolated for a minimum of 14 days. If it is negative, they are asked to self-isolate until 48 hours after their symptoms disappear.

The HSE’s current capacity for weekly testing is 84,000, with plans to expand that further to 100,000 per week by May 18 - the day phase one of the lowered lockdown restrictions is set to kick in.

However, only about 75% of that capacity is currently being met due to the high threshold of the virus’ case definition.

The Irish College of General Practitioners welcomed the latest change and said that they are “increasingly confident” that the measures put in place by the HSE are now sufficient to handle the inevitable spike in testing that will ensue.

The last time such a broad case definition was in place for the virus was towards the start of the crisis - a fact which saw the creation of a massive backlog in both testing and those waiting for test results. Some 40,000 people were on a waiting list for a test towards the end of June.

Dr Mary Favier, president of the ICGP, said that the relaxation of the definition “is a necessary step as restrictions are easing”.

She said however that it is “critically important that contact tracing is timely and appropriately organised in order to deal with the anticipated rise”.

On Tuesday Dr Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said that wait times for test results have now been reduced to between two and four days in the majority of cases.