Over 700 tested for Covid in one day in Tullamore

Huge numbers of people have been attending for Covid-19 testing locally, with 768 people swabbed for the virus in Tullamore on Monday, December 27 last.

Figures provided by the HSE on Thursday (December 30) show the centre in Clonminch has been consistently busy in the run-up to Christmas amid a surge in people seeking PCR tests.

In all, almost 5,000 people have been tested over the week-long period from December 21 to 28 in Offaly's test centre.

615 people were swabbed on December 21, while a day later that figure was 656, and on December 23 it hit a high of 703.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, possibly due to reduced capacity, that fell to 492 and 256 respectively.

It climbed again on St Stephen's Day as 570 people were swabbed, and rose further on December 27 to 768. On December 28, the latest day's figures available, 726 people were tested for Covid-19, amid massive demand for tests and problems accessing appointments nationwide.

In contrast, back in 2020, the busiest day for testing was on December 27, with 306 people coming to the Tullamore centre.

Over the Christmas period last year (December 21-28) just 931 people were tested in Tullamore, more than five times less than the figure in 2021 at 4,786.