THE number of Covid-19 tests carried out in Donegal have more than doubled in recent weeks, new figures reveal.
It comes as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Donegal continues to rise. There has been thirty cases so far in August which is already more than the combined totals for June (12) and July (19).
There was a massive spike in confirmed Covid-19 cases in April (391), rising from 68 in March while the total for May was just eighteen.
Figures provided to the Donegal News from the HSE show that, in the seven days ending Sunday last, August 16, there were 537 test were carried out in Donegal Community Testing Centre, O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny – an average of 76 tests per day carried out at the facility.
In the eleven days, ending Thursday, July 30, there were 320 tests carried out – an average of 29 tests per day.
This marks an average weekly increase of 168pc.
Given that Letterkenny has the facilities in place to carry out 300 tests per day, it is currently working at little more than one quarter capacity.
St Eunan’s GAA club pitches have been used by the HSE as a drive-through Covid-19 testing centre since the end of March. With GAA activities returning to the Letterkenny venue in recent weeks, the HSE is looking at moving the test centre to another location.
“The HSE continues to work their HSE Estate colleagues in reviewing a number of alternative site options in the Letterkenny area,” a HSE spokesman said this week.
Since the outbreak, there has been 505 positive cases of the coronavirus confirmed in Donegal. The figure represents almost two per cent (1.9) of the country’s total.
A HSE spokeswoman said on Monday evening that a “slight slowdown” in turnaround times was being driven by a “large increase in a short time-fame in the number of Covid-19 swabs being tested”.
As infections have climbed around the country, data from the HSE’s testing and tracing dashboard suggests the time taken from referral for a test to the completion of contact tracing calls has gone from three days on average at the start of the month to 3.8 days.
Meanwhile, Letterkenny University Hospital has reached ten weeks without a confirmed Covid-19 case being treated at the facility.
That’s according to the latest statistics measured by the HSE. The last confirmed Covid-19 infection at the hospital was on Wednesday 10 June. There was one suspected case being treated at the hospital earlier this week.
Since June 10, the number of confirmed case in Donegal increased by 35 from 470 to 505.
Nationally, there were twenty confirmed cases being treated in Irish hospitals yesterday and 137 suspected cases.
The latest figures from LUH indicate there was one vacant critical care bed in the hospital and no vacant general beds.
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