Covid-19 outbreak notice revoked at Dundalk nursing home after staff retest negative

Two fully vaccinated staff members at Dealgan House nursing home in Dundalk, Co Louth, who tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days have been retested and the results returned as negative.

The care facility's chief executive, Eoin Farrelly, said that he decided to seek retests for the two staff members after the test results on swabs taken last Friday came back positive.

He said he decided to get them retested because the two staff members tested negative two weeks earlier as part of the routine serial testing of nursing home staff. The staff were swabbed again on Wednesday and the results came back on Thursday as negative.

Mr Farrelly said that public health doctors have lifted the notice of an outbreak – defined as two cases or more – at the nursing home and he has notified relatives of residents of this.

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“It is a massive relief for ourselves and for staff,” he told The Irish Times.

The suspension of indoor visits announced in the wake of the positive test results on Monday has been lifted and Mr Farrelly has contacted relatives to say that visiting has been resumed.

All residents and staff at the Dealgan House nursing home are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, having received their second and final doses of the vaccines in early February.

Dealgan House was one of the worst affected nursing homes in the country during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, when 22 residents died in an outbreak a year ago.

Vaccinations and lockdown measures have led to a sharp fall in the number of Covid-19 cases and outbreaks recorded in long-term residential care facilities.