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07th Apr 2021

The latest Covid testing results in nursing homes are very encouraging

Alan Loughnane

Covid nursing homes

Great to hear.

Health Service Executive CEO Paul Reid has said that vaccines are now protecting the “most vulnerable” in our nursing homes.

It comes as the HSE released the figures for the latest round of testing of nursing home residents across the country.

“In the latest cycle of testing, of over 16,100 tests, the positivity rate is now at 0.07%. This is the lowest rate since we began serial testing [in nursing homes] last year,” Reid said on Twitter.

He added: “Really good news on how the vaccines are protecting the most vulnerable in nursing homes.”

The figures mean that out of the circa 16,000 tests completed recently, there were as little as 11 positive tests reported.

A total of 4,300 positive cases were recorded in nursing homes during January, with 37% of them coming from healthcare workers.

Over 1,500 nursing home residents with Covid-19 have died during the pandemic, with 369 deaths reported in January of this year alone.

Meanwhile, the one millionth dose of Covid-19 vaccine is set to be administered in Ireland on Wednesday.

Originally, the government said it wanted to administer 1.25 million doses by the end of March but fell well short of that target due to supply issues.

Nine further Covid-related deaths were reported on Tuesday along with 443 new cases of the virus.

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