Tag Archives: Covid testing

A PRIVATE testing centre for Covid-19 is to come on stream in the Clare/Limerick area, with a drive-through facility, as well as mobile testing units for large organisations. The development by healthcare company RocDoc was announced this week, as the company expands its operations. The company will also create 200 new jobs at the facilities in the Midwest, as well as in counties Meath and Cork. While specific details of the location in the Clare/Limerick area were not released, plans for its opening are said to be well advanced. At its existing clinic in Ashbourne, County Meath, the private company offers molecular tests using what is referred to as Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) technology. Results are available within a few hours, depending on what kind of service is requested. Currently, in order to attend a State-run Covid-19 testing centre, patients must have a referral from a doctor. However, people can attend the private RocDoc centres and get tested without the …

FAMILY doctors are braced for a challenging winter, with pressure already coming on the service just weeks after children returned to school. Already a number of primary classes have had to be suspended temporarily and at least one national school closed due to Covid-19. There is also said to be considerable confusion over what kind of symptoms should raise red flags over attendance at school. “When it comes to the public health guidelines, it seems that the advice from every source is to contact your GP,” said Dr Máire Finn of the Centric Medical Centre. “Given the pressures the service is under, we can’t be the only port of call. We are getting a large number of people with questions over whether or not children should be going to school and sometimes, we just can’t answer them. I can foresee a situation where the whole winter is taken up with people keeping kids off school when they should be in, …