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Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said he expects antigen testing for close contacts will be used in primary schools before Christmas. Speaking to RTE he confirmed the Government is looking at rapid testing.
It comes as there were 3,428 new cases of Covid-19 reported in the State on Sunday with 478 Covid-19 patients in hospital including 75 in ICU.
Mr Donnelly also said he would like to see “ urgent and rapid sanctions” for members of the hospitality industry who are failing in their obligations in relation to Covid compliance.
In an interview on This Week on RTE Radio 1 Minister Donnelly emphasised that that he didn’t want to penalise the large numbers of outlets who are behaving impeccably as we continue the fight against Covid.
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However, he indicated he was “concerned” about the increased flouting of the Public Health regulations in relation to Covid in certain sections of the hospitality industry.
Members of the industry are due to meet the Taoiseach next week over compliaceissues, including the failure of some outlets to check Covid vaccine certs.
“The legislative approach we took was very much an engagement approach and a co operative approach. If this large minority do not start doing the right thing I certainly would be in favour of more rapid sanction of not the industry but the outlets.”
He emphasised that “many thousands” of inspections of outlets are being carried out by the HSE and the HSA and enforcement action is taking place.”
However, Mr Donnelly says he would like to see more checks and more rapid sanctions for those outlets who are not compliant.
When asked if that would involve a change in the law he conceded that it “probably would.”
“Again I am giving you my view. This isn’t a decision that is being made by Government but as Minister for Health I would be concerned at the growing number of outlets who appear not to be doing the right thing and I think we should be looking at more urgent sanctions for those who aren’t.
Schools
Earlier Mr Donnelly said he is involved is an “ongoing conversation” with Minister for Education, Norma Foley, and Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan in relation to using rapid testing for contact tracing in primary schools.
He told On the Record with Gavan Reilly on Newstalk that contact tracing in primary schools was stopped “in the interest” of students.
“The data is showing very clearly that there is infection and the vast majority of that infection is happening in households. It is not happening in the schools. What was happening was that kids were being taken out of school for ten days at a time which is obviously very damaging.
“The infection rates are going up. All of the data says they are not going up because of infections in the schools. The schools are low risk environments. In fact the recent surge in cases we have seen in those from 12 to 25 from a time perspective it is actually linked to the mid term.What we have seen consistently is that when students are in school cases are lower then when are out and about. That is the socialisation.
“Critically we are looking at how rapid testing can be used for contact tracing in the schools. There has been a call for rapid testing to be used and it is something we are looking at deploying.”
He said new European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) guidelines involve looking at testing within pods or if you get “a certain number of positive tests within a classroom you can test within the classroom.”
“These are exactly the things we are looking at now. We can’t give a timeline (for a decision) but it is something we are looking. I think we will move quickly. “
In relation to rolling out the vaccine to children aged five and 12 years old he said they would be led by the European Medicines Agency on this matter.
“They are looking on this very carefully. They started a rolling review on this mid October so we are keeping it under close review.”
Boosters
Meanwhile, in relation to the rollout of booster vaccines to over 60s, the immunocompromised and healthcare workers Donnelly indicated that “we are ramping up again” to 200,000 vaccines a week.
He said that the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) is also looking at the situation with immunocompromised under sixties identifying them as a "high risk" group. He emphasised that Niac's advice is that a period of five months should pass before the booster vaccine is administered.
“We are moving very quickly. We are following the best clinical advice. There is a minimum gap of five months required and we are targeting 1.3 to 1.4 million people.”
However, he added that it was more important that we don’t fall in to this “seductive notion” that boosters are the answer to everything.
“That is not the case. But there is a lot more has to happen. Flu vaccines, industry really needs to play its part in terms of compliance with Covid passes and each one of us individually we all have a role to play. “