Nursing home staff will be trained to test for virus
Nursing home staff are to be trained to carry out tests in a bid to further suppress the virus as well as speed up lab results.
They will be shown how to swab residents while test kits will be colour-coded or have barcodes to help link them to those tested.
A quicker testing regime would also contribute to demands for stricter protections at facilities in order for visiting to be allowed resume.
Nursing Homes Ireland officials held talks with Health Minister Simon Harris last week about the testing move, which follows the recent spike in virus infections in residential care settings.
Mr Harris has also told fellow ministers there would be more testing in nursing homes but that this will be decided by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) this week.
Staff and homes have said they will do tests themselves, once health authorities supply the virus test kits.
The move follows the widespread testing of nursing home residents by ambulance and external health workers.
The HSE said last week it had completed the mass testing of 28,000 residents and 30,000 staff across 577 nursing homes in the State.
However, the plan is now to allow staff, most likely nurses, retest residents or new arrivals in facilities. Test kits would then be forwarded to labs and results returned to facilities.
NHI CEO Tadgh Daly confirmed to the Irish Examiner that a speedy roll out of the new testing regime would help protect residents, staff and any spread of infection outside facilities.
"We would very much welcome the introduction of a retesting programme including for nurses in nursing homes [to use]. It would result in a quicker turnaround time and would be structured.”
