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ANTIGEN TESTING IN schools, colleges and workplaces is going to be ramped up “significantly”, according to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time programme last night, he said the government plans to “expand antigen testing quite significantly” in these areas.
A report on whether antigen tests could be used in schools and other workplaces is due to be published this week. Professor Mark Ferguson of Science Foundation Ireland carried out the report which is understood to recommend individual departments take the lead in their specific areas.
To date, the only test system being widely rolled out has used the lab-reliant PCR tests, which detect the RNA of Covid-19 and are believed to be the most accurate. Antigen tests are rapid on-site tests to detect current infections of Covid-19 but experts have been split on their accuracy. Other rapid tests, antibody tests, indicate a previous Covid infection but are not widely used in public health settings.
Varadkar told yesterday’s press conference at Government Buildings that he will take the lead on rolling out antigen testing in workplaces in the private sector, while Higher Education Minister Simon Harris will take the lead in rolling it out in universities and third-level institutions.
Education Minister Norma Foley is tasked with antigen testing in schools, with pilot schemes ready to be rolled out. Government sources state a wider antigen testing system in schools could be ready for September.
It is understood there isn’t full agreement between members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) or within the HSE in relation to antigen testing and its use.
While the final report from the expert group, which was chaired by Professor Ferguson, recommends widespread use of the tests, including in schools, it is believed it was not supported by all members of the group.
The independent antigen report was commissioned by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and returned directly to him, in a bid to finally move on the issue that has been discussed for many months now.
While there seem to be differing viewpoints at all levels on the use of antigen testing, the government is pressing on with their use in other settings.
Speaking recently about antigen testing in the Dail, Varadkar said he believes it has a role to play, but acknowledged that NPHET and some public health experts are “cautious” about such testing and its effectiveness.
Professor Luke O’Neill previously told Newstalk’s Pat Kenny that now is the time for the Irish Government to “bite the bullet” and introduce widespread antigen testing.
As society reopens, he said antigen tests would be a useful weapon, adding that the evidence for antigen testing is getting stronger and stronger.
In terms of schools, the UK Government sets out in its plan for secondary school and college students that they should be be tested twice a week.
But as they return to school this month they will receive three initial tests at school or college before transitioning to twice weekly home testing.
The UK Government also wants twice-weekly testing for all families and households with primary, secondary school and college-aged children and young people.
Previously, Education Minister Norma Foley said the department would “utilise antigen testing if NPHET recommends it”.
Teachers’ unions have called for regular antigen testing to be introduced in schools as part of plans to re-open educational settings on a phased basis from next week.
NPHET has endorsed the use of antigen tests as a supplement to PCR testing in certain situations, and particularly when the availability of PCR tests may be limited.
The European Commission recently signed a contract for the supply of up to 20 million rapid antigen tests for donation to member states.
Antigen tests from the EU
The HSE confirmed to The Journal that Ireland received its first allocation of these antigen tests in the first quarter of this year.
“Proposal for their use in symptomatic patients within defined contexts has been made and decisions regarding deployment are being finalised with NPHET.
“We have already used antigen tests in hospitals, food sector and outbreak settings as part of the validation project,” said the HSE.
While a HIQA report found that antigen tests to date show reduced diagnostic accuracy as compared with the PCR test, the WHO suggests that these rapid tests should only be used when PCR testing is unavailable, or where prolonged turnaround times preclude clinical utility.
The HSE said their intended use is in symptomatic patients in the early stages of infection, where samples are taken and tests conducted by trained by health professionals.
“There is limited performance data currently available for the use of antigen tests in asymptomatic populations. The ECDC and WHO recommend that any country considering implementing antigen testing should conduct appropriate clinical validation of the tests for use in that setting.
“As a result the HSE established a working group who are verifying and validating a range of tests available in the marketplace, together with the options and impacts arising from the deployment of those tests,” said the HSE.
HSE boss Paul Reid confirmed that a working group is validating a range of antigen assays, including in acute hospitals, the meat processing sector, community testing sites and outbreak settings.
Antigen testing is already available to all acute hospitals and is being used by three National Ambulance Service mobile teams on a pilot basis, said Reid.
The health minister told the Dáil recently that validation studies, both here in Ireland and in Europe, are showing significant disparities in test performance (particularly in relation to sensitivity) versus some manufacturer claims, with some tests not meeting minimum performance requirements set by the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
There is limited performance data currently available for the use of antigen tests in asymptomatic populations, he added.
Antigen testing will not, however, replace the requirement for large scale PCR testing which remains the gold standard for community testing, said the health minister.
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Just read very scary line……”the HSE are setting up a working group” my god a year into a pandemic this lot would last a week in the private sector…….
@David cotter: I’m always confused by this statement .
Day after day we see the dysfunctional nature of a private sector that spend all their time giving out about the public sector as they hide money from the tax man and treat their employees shabbily . Please explain what is so laudable about the private sector compared to its public counterpart . Those in the private sector choose it because the risks may be a little higher but the rewards are too.
@David cotter: That is to keep the multiple managers occupied. As the organisation is completely top heavy with managers/directors they have to try and justify their roles. They setup working groups and group think tanks and all that kind of rubbish so they can sit together and look at slide decks about nothing etc.
@Conor Flood: spoken like a true HSE middle manager or other type of obscure civil servant Connor
@Conor Flood: One word Conor. Accountability. If you screw up in the private sector you get fired. If you screw up in the public service you get promoted.
@David Corrigan: usual nonsense! You don’t honestly believe that surely?! Would bet that everyone on here can very easily come up with an example of someone screwing up in the private sector and not getting fired! http://www.publicjobs.ie will get you in to the elite club if you really think that’s actually true though….It isn’t a closed shop like! You’ll have to be self motivated though and not just doing what you’re meant to be doing because the boss is watching!
@David cotter: secondary school teacher . You speak like ya true low level private sector worker who is angry at the world for having chosen the wrong profession. Enjoy your day and your bitterness .
@David Corrigan: I don’t agree with you on this one . Employees screw up all the time in the private sector and are protected by employment laws against unfair dismissal . They don’t get fired they simply don’t get promoted . The same is true in any job private or public .
If you screw up in the private sector you get fired? If that was the case most management would be gone from eir by now.
@Conor Flood: ahh Conor. You’re a teacher probably like mr mcclean
Waiting on reports, setting up working groups, everything is always in planning or expected to happen. Nothing ever really actually happening. I think antigen tests would be a useful tool in the final phases of this virus but have zero faith in this governments ability to do anything more then talk or do a hatchet job on anything they do actually attempt. This country can’t be rid of this government soon enough.
A lot of school staff have bought their own antigen tests, this country is a joke, they like to compare us to the uk when it suits their agenda to get schools open but won’t follow suit with the antigen testing that may actually catch covid cases before they spread too much. No one in government seems to consider or care about staff in schools or their families. That’s very evident by the broken vaccine promises. Special schools in particular are as much care settings as education and yet staff in other care settings have been vaccinated but not special schools and now to push the vaccine even further away is an absolute insult!
@Louise S: yep, and the tests don’t come cheap
But why ramp up testing in schools and colleges? It is the age group that are mostly asymptomatic, require no hospitalizations. Is it to keep case numbers high and use it as an excuse to keep the restrictions, different levels of lockdowns, introduce new measures, keep us in further suspended animation?
@Goran Josifov: because kids can catch it and spread to parents and childminders. It is one of the riskiest environments for spread. It is a containment measure. Should have been done a long time ago
@Goran Josifov: still spreaders
Another working group, good god, if we had this sorta efficiency in the private sector nothing would get done and project deadlines would be missed by miles and someone would be sacked…the amount of red tape in our health service and shielding those in charge have and at an administration level around decisions they make is a joke
Didn’t they say at one stage that anti gen testing was unreliable ?
@Nigel Hayden: We returned thousands of antigen tests in work because of false readings. Confirmed cases of Covid through PCR testing were tried a few days later with antigen testing and all 4 of the people we knew who had covid showed up negative.
The problem is that in alot of cases they are self administered and the person doesnt put the swab far enough up their nose or throat to get a true reading.
Also, the antigen tests are most effective when the person is showing heavy symptoms of covid and not in the initial stages of infection.
@EdmundOrlando: Maybe the PCR is the issue
It’s the antibody test that needs to be ramped up, that’s the only way to collect data on how herd immunity will effect hospital admissions. Have they no sense at all.
Brilliant news and they have experience now with the success of the pop up testing centres. I have faith they can do this, hopefully do this for meat plants in particular.
@Ally Mc Culladgh: are you a bot?
@Jimosea: No.
@Ally Mc Culladgh: your faith in an organisation that has for 20+ years at an administration and management level, that its overpaid, top heavy and has continued to miss target’s while simultaneously flushing billions of the taxpayers down the hse Black hole as we can call the health service budget….is admirable, but also worrying given the fact we face a decade or so of people likely bringing legal action against the hse and state over wilful neglect of other medical issues completely ignored during covid due to completely inept management of or health services…..I hope your confidence brings the results you hope, me I feel another fiasco on route cos well that’s what thwwwmp9t are good for
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: Pop up test centres are a success so far. They now have some albeit limited experience in this type of system. So a popup antigen should be just as sucessful.
So is this starting next week or another two weeks down the line?
@Adam Ford: billrabbitte72@gmail.com
Prob a year or more knowing the way the government takes so long to implement things
Paul Reid from the HSE talking about antigen assays. The language, the persona, the individual, the accent.
Definitely a mismatch somewhere.
PCR v Antigen tests.
Strange bias for ‘ONLY’ PCR tests by NPHET members … I wonder why?
Why is there such an emphasis on maximising the very expensive PCR tests v cheap Antigen testing, even if not as accurate (but could be applied more widely).
WHO and NPHET got masks wrong … they may understand Health but certainly not Safety!
I really think that they play with the numbers they are not giving everyone the vacine i know a lady of 91 who got a call yesterday to cancel her second vacine tomorrow surgery do not have vacine un maybe next week
have your say