The Mayo Covid-19 Testing Centre will now be at Mayo Community Living (MCL ) in Swinford, opened on Friday, June 24.
Testing ceased in Breaffy on Thursday. Testing will commence in Unit 1, MCL, Swinford from 10am to 3pm going forward.
The HSE will maintain a seven-day service across testing sites which will ensure that there is an accessible service available to facilitate those who want to get a PCR test as soon as possible after they develop symptoms of Covid-19. The move is part of the HSE’s plan to transition to smaller testing centres sites.
The Mayo Covid-19 Testing Centre moved from MacHale Park, Castlebar to Breaffy Hotel at the end of January this year. A total number of 14,807 tests have been carried out in this time. The HSE and Community Healthcare West would like to acknowledge the critical role its large-scale testing facilities played in response to Covid-19 and the work and commitment of everyone involved over the last two years.
The HSE will continue to ensure that there is a test centre in each county for this transition period, and as part of this they intend to consolidate two of their existing sites into one - in Cork, Galway and Dublin North. This will result in two testing centres in Cork and Tipperary and four centres in Dublin, alongside one in each of the other counties.
It is important to note that notwithstanding the move to smaller test-centres, for the next number of months, PCR testing will continue to be available via self-referral or GP referral for those who require it based on public health advice and via the self-referral portal on HSE.ie Once the public health advice changes for population testing, the testing centres will close. The HSE are working to expand their Covid-19 surveillance programme and testing will remain available for those who require it to access therapeutic treatments, or as part of their clinical treatment. They are working currently to put plans in place to enable that with the support of Primary Care.
The HSE are also planning to ensure that they have the necessary infrastructure and trained staff available should they need to quickly respond from a testing perspective to any future surge or emerging variant of concern.
