Covid-19 test and tracing turnaround will be down to three days from next week

The HSE has said that from Monday May 18, the day set for a possible first phase of lifting of lockdown restrictions, test turnaround, from swab to full contact tracing, for the coronavirus will be three days.

Speaking at a briefing concerning testing and contact tracing in UCD this morning, HSE CEO Paul Reid said that in 90% of positive cases, the turnaround time will now be three days.

The remainder represent more “challenging” cases and will take a little longer, he said.

A three-day turnaround has become the accepted international standard outlier for effectively managing the spread of Covid-19 by isolation.

The three-day turnaround discussed will represent an improvement from the current timeline of five days from referral to completion of contact tracing, which happens in 85% of cases, the briefing heard.

In terms of negative results, most people can expect to get that negative result by text message after between one and two days.

From Monday, testing capacity will be running at 15,000 swabs per day - meaning the HSE will have reached its oft-discussed level of 100,000 tests per week by its self-appointed deadline.

In outlining a roadmap for testing in the immediate future, one which has been approved by Cabinet and the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), Mr Reid said that nearly 270,000 tests have been completed to date.

The roadmap document will be published later today, he said.

He said that the introduction of automation for several processes across the testing chain had been the single most important step in reducing turnaround times, which earlier in the crisis had stretched across several weeks.

For example, the time taken to communicate a positive test result from the laboratory to contact tracers has now reduced from 24 hours to just 90 minutes.

The main barrier to reducing times further is logistics, the briefing heard, or in transporting swabs to testing laboratories quickly.

In terms of the more complex cases for contact tracing - involving those with language barriers or diminished capacity, or which have originated in care homes for example - Dr Colm Henry, the HSE’s chief clinical officer, said that “a lot of work has gone into standardising the process” of how such cases should be handled.

With regard to complications and data issues surrounding contact tracing, Niamh O’Beirne, an external management consultant from EY previously appointed by Mr Reid to oversee the development of Ireland’s testing capacity, said that the main issue surrounding some cases continues to revolve around the absence of an accurate phone number for the test subject.

This applies in 2% of cases, Ms O’Beirne said, adding that it does not prevent contact tracing from happening, but merely slows the process, which must then be further actioned by sending a letter to the subject’s address, for example.

With regard to the oft-discussed seroprevalance study - a method for testing the entire population for antibodies to see who has had the virus, possibly without having ever presented as such - Dr Henry said that the format of that test had now been created, and remained to be signed off by NPHET.

That study will hopefully begin “sometime in June” Dr Cillian De Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory and head of NPHET’s expert advisory group, said.

Seroprevalence is an approach designed to reduce the randomness factor of asymptomatic carriers of the disease (estimated to be between 30% and 50% of those infected) from plans to reduce restrictions and re-open the country.

Dr Henry confirmed that antibodies to the virus do not develop immediately, but rather between seven and ten days after infection.