Here are the first videos and images from the walk-in Covid test centres in Dublin where you need no GP appointment or no fee applies.
These centres are being established to target areas where positive cases are particularly high and help discover cases that are appearing without symptoms.
Medical personnel with the help of the National Ambulance Service hope to carry out as many as 500 Covid tests per day at each walk-in centre between now and Wednesday 31 March from 11am to 7pm each day.
You can use the free testing service if you are over 16, do not have Covid symptoms but would like to be tested and you must live within 5km of the test centre.
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Dublin Live went to Grangegorman centre which opened for the first time this morning as large queues formed from before the opening of the tents.
Patients at the centres were brought into a tent to be tested where they produced photo ID and provided staff with their name and phone number so they can be contacted with their results.
It is understood that those tested will be contacted as soon as one or two days after their test as part of the new rapid scheme.
Social distancing measures will apply as people turn up for testing. If the waiting times are too long, people are welcome to come back on another day or time.
Walk-in testing units will be open at the following locations:
- National Aquatic Centre – Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 - (Eircode: D15HT9N).
- Tallaght Stadium – Tallaght, Dublin 24 – D24FNK6.
- Irish Town Stadium – Irishtown, Dublin 4 – D04KN77.
- Tullamore Leisure Centre - Tullamore – R35A594.
- Grangegorman Primary Care Centre car park, (Entrance off NCR)-beside TUD campus - D07VPT0.
If you have symptoms of COVID-19, you are warned not to go to the walk-in test centres.
These include a high temperature, a new cough, shortness of breath or a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste.
If you have any of these symptoms, self-isolate and phone a GP straight away. Your GP will tell you if you need a free COVID-19 test.
You can find more information on the HSE website here.
Have you used a walk-in testing centre? Share your experiences by commenting below
