Currently no cases of coronavirus in Ireland - HSE
There are currently no cases of the coronavirus in Ireland, according to the HSE.
HSE assistant national director of public health and child health Kevin Kelleher said the health services had been dealing with people who had been in China and have health issues.
Dr Kelleher said they had dealt with lots of inquiries about the virus but none had progressed to an actual case.
Asked if anyone had been tested for the virus, Dr Kelleher, said there is no case in Ireland at the moment.
“We have been investigating people as per our guidance and that's where we are at at the moment.”
Questioned about a doctor giving evidence in a High Court action who told a judge that a Dublin hospital might have a case, Dr Kelleher said he had “no idea” about that at all.
Asked if there are any suspected cases, Dr Kelleher said there were people they had been involved with and, in a sense, they were suspected cases.
But the cases they had been dealing with could not be compared to cases in China where people were in hospital with severe symptoms of the disease and were awaiting a test result.
He said the available tests were confined to just 12 laboratories around the world and the health authority would be using them when necessary.
Dr Kelleher said if somebody was strongly suspected of having the disease they would be put in an isolation room, like anyone else with flu or another type of infectious disease.
“But we are not at the point,” he emphasised during a HSE media briefing in Dublin.
Director of the HSE's Health Protection Surveillance Centre Dr John Cuddihy said the likelihood of a having a “coronavirus case” confirmed in Ireland is “moderate”.
Dr Kelleher added: "We are putting a massive amount of effort into dealing with any really quite low degree of possibility of a case to ensure we don't miss anything."
Consultant virologist and director of the National Reference Laboratory, Dr Cillain De Gascun, said they would be able to test for the virus on site in the next few days, with a turnaround of eight to 12 hours depending on sample arrival time.
Dr Kelleher agreed that in “the worst case” scenario there could be thousands of people affected.
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"What we are striving to do is to try and ensure that if we do have a case here we will minimise and, hopefully, make sure there is no spread of that disease.”
HSE national director of national services Joe Ryan said management had been developing plans to respond to the virus.
A multidisciplinary team had been working on what was needed to deal with the virus since early January and had been meeting three times a week.
“Our current priorities are that the HSE emergency management protocols are in place alongside our public health emergency plans, and we're using these to manage the situation,” said Mr Ryan.
Hospitals had "critical care surge plans" to deal with any increase in capacity demand and the national ambulance service had tirage and treatment protocols in place specifically related to the virus.
