System For Referring People For Covid-19 Tests Down Because Of This Morning's HSE Cyber Attack

GPs will be advising anyone with symptoms or close contacts to attend a walk-in centre instead

The Rotunda Hospital has cancelled most appointments, except for women who are heavily pregnant.

The ambulance service and Covid vaccination programme are both operating as normal.

The HSE has shut down its entire IT system in response to the attack - CEO Paul Reid says they're assessing the impact:

"It's quite a sophisticated attack, not just a standard attack that happens in these instances. We've had to shut down a lot of our major national and local systems to protect them. We are fully assessing the impacts of it with our own IT teams, our own security partners, and indeed with the state National Security Cyber Team. They are involved in this now at this stage."