HSE using antiquated system to track Covid-19 cases, public health specialist claims

Professor Ruairi Brugha, Head of RCSI's Department of Public Health and Epidemiology. Picture: RCSI/Twitter

Public health specialist Professor Ruairí Brugha has said that the HSE is using an antiquated system for tracking Covid-19 cases which fails to pinpoint where transmissions are occurring.

A system that identifies where cases are happening so that they can be targeted is needed he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

Not knowing where exactly transmissions are taking place is a “major problem,” he added.

However, Prof Brugha said he did not agree with suggestions that the testing system was falling apart. 

He pointed out that there were delays in some cases because of the reluctance of people to be tested.

While there had been some delays last weekend, he described that as “a blip” and said that by Monday the turn around time was back to 24 hours. 

In hospitals the turn around time was nine hours and 29 hours in the community, he said.

Part of the problem was the transport time from where the test was taken to one of the two centralised testing centres. That could be shortened he said.

There was also a challenge within some communities with regard to testing, added Prof Brugha. 

In some workplace settings and in direct provision centres there could be cultural and language issues.

There needed to be targeted testing, so that county-wide shutdowns would not be necessary, he said.