THE HSE’S CHIEF executive has said that the health service plans to use antigen testing to deal with Covid-19 outbreaks.

Paul Reid said the tests may also be used for close contacts of confirmed coronavirus cases.

“We are planning to utilise antigen testing for outbreaks, where they are very well proven, and potentially also for close contacts,” Reid said on RTÉ’s This Week programme.

Public health officials have been reluctant to utilise antigen testing with Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan saying last month that the method is “just not as good as PCR [testing]“.

“It’s not a skepticism of antigen testing, it’s the absence of evidence to show that they work well enough to recommend their use,” Holohan said.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly established an expert group on rapid antigen testing earlier this month, with the aim of examining how to “safely use rapid antigen testing to open our society”.

Reid said today that the health service is “extremely busy”.

None of us want to go back to the dark days of January where we had over 2,000 people being treated with Covid in hospital and 212 people in ICU’s.

Earlier today, public health officials announced 576 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. A total of 58 people are in hospital with the illness today, including 16 patients in intensive care units.