Call on HSE to increase capacity at local test centre

Social Democrats Cllr Clare Claffey has called on the HSE to increase capacity at the test centre in Tullamore after she was waiting nearly 2 hours for a PCR test for her son on Thursday afternoon.

The queue for the test centre began at the Clonminch roundabout causing traffic to be backed up at all exits of the roundabout, she said.

"It was chaos, nothing was moving, better traffic management is needed. A huge amount of people were queuing to be tested, fair play to the staff who are doing a great job under these conditions.

"While the wait was long I have to consider myself lucky to get an appointment, the vast majority of people don't seem to be able to access PCR tests at the moment and some people from Offaly are having to travel outside the county for a test."

Currently a positive PCR is required to access the Covid illness benefit and while the changes announced last night to the PCR testing requirements may free up some testing capacity, Claffey added: "what we really need is either a change that allows a positive antigen test to be accepted as a true positive, without the need for a PCR, or else vastly increased PCR testing capacity while we deal with the omicron wave."