Tag Archives: testing

AN Outbreak Control Team has been established at University Hospital Limerick after one patient and one member of staff on Ward 3B tested positive for Covid-19 this Tuesday ( August 19). Contact tracing and testing is currently underway and all appropriate infection prevention and control measures are being followed in line with the national HPSC guidance. A number of staff from the ward at the centre of what we believe to be a localised outbreak have been identified as contacts. They have been asked to stay off work and to self-isolate in line with national guidance.  Initial testing of all patient contacts is complete and has not identified further cases. Initial testing of all staff contacts is expected to be complete tomorrow. All patients on the ward in question have been informed of the outbreak. Noreen Spillane, Chief Operations Officer, UL Hospitals Group, said: “Hospitals have been preparing for these situations for many months and we have now established an …

Eleven additional Covid-19 cases have been diagnosed in Clare bringing to 22 the total number of new cases in the county since last weekend. Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn said that as of midnight Wednesday, July 29, the HPSC has been notified of 85 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 26,027 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland. The 11 cases in Clare represent the second largest increase in the county since June 1 when a total of 37 new cases were confirmed. The HSE also confirmed that the eight cases announced on Tuesday are new, and that some of them relate to a cluster in the Ennis area. It follows on from the three additional cases announced on Sunday, which brought a five-week run of being Covid-free to an end in Clare. The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the county stands at 380. The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been …

The HSE has offered over 1,000 appointments at the drive through community test centre at the county GAA grounds of Cusack Park since it opened back in April. However, the HSE has declined to confirm how many if any people tested positive for Covid-19 saying “we do not provide information on individual test centres. The NPHET reports on the numbers tested positive daily”. The Cusack Park community test centre has the capacity to test 200 people per day but the HSE outlined that there hasn’t been the need to test at that level as the public have implemented the government’s Covid-19 guidelines and continue to hold firm. The HSE, however, acknowledged the role of all HSE staff “who continue to show commitment to community testing during this pandemic”. The Cusack Park community test centre opened April 23 last and the Covid -19 test is an appointment based service following a referral completed by a GP, out of hours GP services …

Scientists at University of Limerick have created a testing solution for COVID-19 amid worldwide shortages of the crucial materials. In response to the global shortage of reagents and extraction kits for COVID-19 testing, scientists at UL’s Bernal Institute, plus the departments of chemical and biological sciences at UL, joined forces with other research centres and institutes to source materials and prepare a testing solution, which has fallen short of supply. The Lysis Buffer solution, which is critical for DNA extraction, was validated at University Hospital Limerick, where it is now being used. Dr Edel Durack, Instrument Scientist at Bernal Bio Laboratories and a team of technicians from the School of Natural Sciences at UL, prepared the solution, which is required to generate results from patient swabs. The solution can now be used for COVID-19 testing across Ireland. Pharmaceutical companies can now also rapidly produce batches of this solution to help meet the demand for testing patients. Dr Durack explained: “This …

Environmental Protection Agency testing over the past three years has found that bathing waters in Clare are “excellent”. The EPA report Bathing Water Quality in Ireland – A Report for the Year 2015 published this week states that 93 per cent of Irish bathing waters meet minimum EU Standards and three quarters of bathing waters continue to be of Excellent quality for the second-year running. Fresh water bathing waters at Ballyalla Lake, Ballycuggeran and Mountshannon (Lough Derg) were found to be excellent in terms of their E. coli, intestinal enterococci and overall status as were Bishopsquarter, Cappagh Pier in Kilrush, Fanore, Kilkee, Lahinch, Spanish Point, White Strand Doonbeg and Whitestrand, Miltown Malbay. Traught in Kinvara was also found to be excellent for the three years between 2012 and 2015. “Despite a cool and, at times, wet and windy summer, the overall quality of Ireland’s bathing waters continues to be extremely good with the stricter standards providing a high level of …