Covid walk-in testing at St Loman's Hospital to continue
The HSE Covid walk-in testing centre at St Loman's Hospital, Mullingar is to continue for the foreseeable for the entire county of Westmeath, the HSE confirmed last night.
Hours are 10am to 4.30pm.
No appointment necessary.
You need to bring identification.
EARLIER REPORT
The walk-in / no appointment necessary testing is operating alongside the existing testing centre, to which GPs refer those with symptoms, and close contacts of confirmed cases of Covid-19 for tests.
Dr Una Fallon, HSE director of Public Health in the midlands, said on Saturday: “Pop-up walk in centres have shown us that there is a demand, particularly from young people, for Covid-19 testing without an appointment. Using some of the lanes in the permanent drive-through testing sites is the next step in determining how this can be provided.
“Mullingar is the ideal location to see if it is feasible to provide this service in an existing site. The rates of Covid-19 in Mullingar have increased slightly in recent days, and providing additional testing at this time makes sense.”
Niamh O Beirne, HSE national lead for Test and Trace, added: “We have the capacity to carry out 25,000 PCR tests a day nationally. In addition to our static testing sites across the country, over the last two weeks, with the support of the National Ambulance Service and Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO) teams, we have opened walk-in sites in various locations.
“These no appointment necessary testing centres offer those with no symptoms of Covid-19 an opportunity to be tested. The centres have allowed us to raise awareness and make the Covid-19 test more easily available.
“By the end of last week we had identified over 600 positive Covid-19 cases through these centres and identified new outbreaks. This has enabled the positive cases to take the necessary actions to protect those around them.”
The HSE said people should use the free, walk-in Covid-19 testing service if they: are aged 16 and over; do not have symptoms of Covid-19 but would like to be tested; have not tested positive for Covid-19 in the last six months.
It is one test per person, and those attending need to have photo ID with them and have to provide HSE staff there with mobile numbers so they can contact people with results.
Social distancing measures apply as people attend for testing. If the waiting times are too long, people are welcome to return at another time or day.