Around 98% of Covid-19 tests showing negative, says HSE
About 98% of tests for Covid-19 come back negative, according to HSE chief executive, Paul Reid.
Mr Reid said almost 310,000 tests were completed and 35,000 swab tests had been done last week.
It now took two days or less to return test results, with a “significant proportion” available in one day or less.
From last week, a turnaround of 2.3 days was achieved from a doctor's visit to contract tracing, the fastest ever achieved.
Mass testing of nursing homes and mental health residential setting was completed and testing in the disability sector, at 96%, was almost complete.
“We are meeting all of the demand and we have the capacity to deliver 100,000 tests per week,” Mr Reid said at the HSE's weekly media briefing.
He added that 85% of swab tests were either same or next day appointments.
Mr Reid said the number of vacant hospital beds, at over 900, was down from almost 2,500 a number of weeks ago and this showed a significant increase in non-Covid activity.
The number of patients with confirmed Covid-19 in intensive care, at 51, represented a 68% decrease from the peak reached on April 9.
The HSE's chief operations officer, Anne O'Connor, said acute hospitals had reached a 90% occupancy.
The State has taken over private hospital facilities and they are now at 50% occupancy with an 80% rate for day cases.
Figures release by the HSE show there have been 7,207 inpatient cases, 24,248 day cases, 32,704 diagnostic tests and 19,513 outpatient appointments carried out to date.
Ms O'Connor said they were considering how they could mobilise and expand the use of tele-health across outpatient services to support virtual consultations.
In March, there were just under 37,000 virtual consultations and last month there were just under 81,000.
“We would see this as something we will build on considerable over the coming months,” she said.
People were also keen to have virtual consultants – the non-attendance rate was only 3%, compared to 14% for face-to-face consultations.
Community assessment hubs that have multidisciplinary teams together with GPs were relatively quite – there were 29 open but referrals are quite low.
“We are now looking to see how the community assessment hubs might support the return of other services.” said Ms O'Connor.
Mr Reid said 289 consultants had signed the Government's public only contract.
He said the current contractual agreements with private hospitals was ultimately a Government decision but the HSE needed to retain capacity for the coming weeks and months ahead.
The HSE's national clinical advisor at the National Office for Suicide Prevention, Dr Philip Dodd, expects that Covid-19 will see the emergence of a new group of people with mental health challenges.
The consultant psychiatrist mentioned people who were cocooning, those out of work for the first time and those struggling with anxiety while their every day life has changed.
"Try to take deliberate notice of what's going on for you right now, and never hesitate to reach out and contact a support service. They are available for everyone, regardless of your past experience or current situation," Dr Dodd urged.
