Serial Testing For Covid-19 In Nursing Homes To Be Phased Out Following Sharp Drop In Cases And Deaths

A positivity rate of just 0.1 percent was confirmed in the latest round of testing this week

The Chief Medical Officer says vaccination has now "virtually eliminated" coronavirus deaths in the facilities.

CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland, Tadhg Daly, says phasing out serial testing is the right thing to do:

"I suppose it is an appropriate decision at this point in time. What we're seeing is the detection rate has dropped to below 1%. So, it's a very, very low detection rate at this point in time. So while we accept the decision of NPHET, and we've communicated with members around it, what we do need to do now over the next number of weeks is monitor the situation closely."