The Minister for Health has announced the setting up of a walk-in Covid-19 test centre in Wicklow.
The centre will operate at the site of the permanent test centre on the grounds of Newcastle Hospital from Friday, April 23rd for seven days.
It will be offering tests to members of the public, who can attend without a referral from their GP, between 10 am and 5 pm.
Minister Donnelly said: “The walk-in test centres are a way of us going after the virus in the community and trying to seek it out.
“The public health strategy has been to target the virus, suppress the virus, use walk-in PCR testing as well as deploying rapid testing.
“We are also using genome sequencing, home quarantine, hotel quarantine, public health measures and of course our vaccination programme in the battle to suppress this disease.
“If our collective experience of Covid-19 has taught us anything, it is that we need to be flexible and adaptable. The disease continues to evolve. Our response must continue to evolve too.
The Minister continued: “Ireland has one of the lowest rates of Covid in Europe. We also have the strongest measures in place against variants. And we have a vaccine programme which is consistently performing among the best in Europe. The plan is working.
“However, social interactions are on the rise. GP referrals have increased.
“The number of daily cases is still higher than any of us want. If we open up carefully, if we stick with the public health measures, if we make sure enough people are vaccinated, then we can look forward to what we all want – a good summer with our friends and families”.
