Over 4,000 residents and staff at residential care homes have been tested for COVID-19 since yesterday.
At a briefing this morning the HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid said the backlog in the testing system has now been cleared.
He said 26 labs around the country are now working on COVID-19 tests and a commercial agreement is being finalised with a lab in Germany.
Since yesterday, over 4,000 tests were carried out on residents and staff at nursing homes and other residential care facilities.
— Ben Finnegan (@_BenFinnegan) April 19, 2020
A census of mortality in nursing homes across the country is underway this weekend and Mr Reid said staff have been prioritised for testing.
There are now 248 outbreaks of coronavirus in those settings - affecting 40 per cent of all homes.
HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said care homes now pose the “greatest challenge” to the COVID-19 response.
He said testing has been refocused on three areas.
“The first group is that of healthcare workers and residents in any setting where there has been a known outbreak,” he said.
“The second is all healthcare workers and all residents in any facility where there is a new case.
“The third is healthcare workers in the nursing home sector.”
Dr Colm Henry, CCO at the HSE has said the "greatest challenge" right now is tackling the outbreaks in nursing homes. He said residents are in a very vulnerable position.
— Ben Finnegan (@_BenFinnegan) April 19, 2020
Meanwhile, accommodation has been provided to around 300 staff members of long-term residential care homes.
Mr Reid said the HSE is accelerating an order of personal protective equipment that was due to arrive late in the year in order to tackle shortages in the system.
He called on all health service staff to be “prudent” with the equipment they have until more 4extensive supplies arrive.
He said 750,000 items of PPE were delivered to nursing homes on Friday.
Yesterday, the COVID-19 death toll on the island of Ireland rose to 764, with 17 new deaths in the North and 41 in the Republic.
Meanwhile, there are now 17,244 confirmed cases of the virus north and south of the border.
However, the level of hospitalisations has dropped to 16% of cases in the Republic – with 2.3% admitted to intensive care.
The Health Minister has suggested schools could be re-opened for one day a week when officials begin to relax COVID-19 restrictions.
He warned however that large gatherings and major sporting events are unlikely to return this year.
