Portal for positive antigen test results opened on HSE website
The Health Service Executive's portal for people to report positive antigen test results has opened.
The Health Service Executive's portal for people to report positive antigen test results has opened.
People are able to access the portal through the HSE's website and from there the close contact details can be entered.
Dublin City University's Professor of Health Systems, Anthony Staines, says the antigen testing changes are welcome.
"Antigen testing is part of the solution to managing Coronavirus in any society," he said.
"The ability to record positive antigen tests will start to give us a better idea of how many cases of Coronavirus are in the country because we've lost sight of that at the moment because the testing system is overwhelmed."
From midnight tonight, new rules come into effect easing the restrictions on close contacts and reducing the period of time that people with Covid-19 have to self-isolate.
People aged 39 and under who get a positive antigen test result will no longer need to seek out a PCR test.
Under the rule change, anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 will only need to self-isolate for seven days instead of 10.
A close contact who has received a booster vaccination is no longer required to restrict their movements but are instead advised to wear a medical grade or FFP2 mask for 10 days and to take regular antigen tests.
Earlier, the head of the HSE says there are "positive indications" Ireland has reached the peak of the Omicron wave.
Paul Reid says he is “cautiously hopeful” that the number of Covid hospitalisations is levelling out.
Mr Reid says the rise in Covid hospitalisations has steadied and there has been a reduction in GP referrals for testing.
On Thursday, the Department of Health reported a further 18,904 cases of Covid-19.
There were 1,023 patients in hospital with the virus, an increase of 12 on the same time yesterday.
It compares to a figure of 936 on this day last week and 682 two weeks ago.
Of those in hospital with Covid-19, 92 were being treated in intensive care units.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, he said that ICU numbers were also holding, but that it would be next week before it could be determined that figures were lowering.
In recent days the number of people being referred by GPs for PCR tests had gone down, he said.
However, he warned of the “lag effect” which had yet to be felt.
There was still a high positivity rate of 50%, he added.
In the past week, 305,000 PCRT tests had been administered and 350,000 antigen tests dispersed with antigen tests now playing “a core part” of the HSE’s strategy.
Hospitals were “managing” through “this difficult time”, but there was a “strain” on non-Covid services he acknowledged.
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