Antigen tests should be made available for free to everyone in Ireland, a leading Immunology expert has said.
Another 3,726 cases of Covid-19 were reported by health officials yesterday, which was the highest number of cases reported since January and the 11th highest since the pandemic began over 18 months ago.
And as a way of combating the rising cases, DCU Immunology Professor Christine Loscher said everyone in Ireland should be using an antigen test twice a week.
"I think antigen testing needs to be made freely available and I think we need to get into the habit in our own households that we check everybody twice a week," she said.
However, one reason why that may prove challenging for the general public is the price of antigen tests in supermarkets and chemists.
"That needs to become part of our own monitoring in everyday life. That needs to be made available and it needs to be made free," she added.
In recent days, the number of patients with Covid-19 in hospital/ICU have stabilised, hovering between 470 and 500.
Despite the extremely high uptake of the vaccine, Prof Lochser wanted to remind the public about the main purpose of the vaccine was to prevent serious illness and hospitalisation, not transmission.
She said: "I think we need to remind people - and immunologists have been screaming this for the last few months - vaccination is about preventing severe illness and disease.
"It is not about preventing you catching the infection.
"Delta is too good of a virus for the vaccine to stop transmission when it's so prevalent in the community."
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