Pat Kenny has revealed he's restricting his movements after a close contact tested positive for COVID-19.

He has praised the HSE for the 'fantastic' testing operation.

While interviewing the HSE's Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry, Pat revealed he had to go for a test late last week.

    

He explained: “I have to compliment you Colm and the HSE. I was identified as a close contact, went for a PCR test on Friday, and had the result by lunchtime Saturday.

“[I went to the] RDS centre on Shrewsbury Road - a very efficient operation. Friendly people, very quick to be done… in-and-out in five minutes."

Pat said he thankfully tested negative, but still has to 'stay out of the way from people' for another while yet until he has his second test and gets the all-clear.

He added: "It’s very well-run, and I have to compliment the HSE on that.”

Currently, all close contacts have to restrict their movements for 14 days and take two COVID-19 tests.

They can stop restricting their movements after 10 days if they have a negative test 10 days after their last contact and have no symptoms of the virus.

Last week also saw five pop-up, walk-in testing centres open in Dublin and Offaly.

It comes as health officials work to see if they can detect more COVID-19 cases in areas where the virus remains stubbornly high.

People do not need an appointment to get tested in these centres - they can go even if they have no symptoms or have had no close contact with a confirmed case.

Dr Henry told Pat those centres have seen a 'big take-up', with around 7,500 tests showing a positivity rate of around 2-3%.

He said: “This is part of a menu of options that allow us to identify cases.

“From here on out, we envisage these would be highly mobile - and we’ll change the location based on the advice of public health departments.”