Walk-in Covid-19 testing centres to open on Thursday

The pop-up centres will be opening in four locations in Dublin and a fifth Offaly, where cases have been high.

The Government has revealed the locations of five walk-in Covid-19 testing centres.

The public does not need to get a GP referral and all tests will be free under the new initiative starting on Thursday.

Two walk-in centres will be based in Dublin and a third in Co Offaly. Two other walk-in centres are also expected to open in Dublin.

The confirmed centres include Tallaght Stadium, Blanchardstown National Aquatic Centre and High Street car park in Tullamore.

Liz Canavan from the Department of Taoiseach says the locations are where covid cases have been high.

She said: "Testing people with those symptoms will help us find positive cases earlier and allow these people to take the necessary action to protect others.

"This will help us break chains of transmission."

The mobile units are being set up to actively look for cases in areas where there are high rates of community transmission.

People allowed to attend are those living within 5km of the testing location.

They will start at 11am and run for a week to allow health authorities to assess take-up in the area.

To date, the Government has vaccinated 492,000 people, with 184,000 people fully vaccinated with two doses.

Close to 11,000 vaccinators are trained, while recruitment for vaccinators at 38 centres is under way.

The aim is to have four in five adults to have received at least one dose by the end of June.

Meanwhile, Ms Canavan said that the number of Covid-19 cases has stagnated in recent days.

She said the new dominant variant is harder to control.

She said: “There has been a 9% increase week-on-week in recent weeks.

“Thirteen counties had a community positive rate of more than 10%.” She said that a number of walk-in testing centres will be set up in areas where there is a high rate of transmission.

Around one in five people have Covid-19 without symptoms, Ms Canavan said during a press conference.

She described it as the “most riskiest” time.