Two and a half weeks ago, when the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, advised the Government to go to level 5, there were 31 outbreaks in nursing homes and there are now close to 200 such outbreaks. We are hearing a horrendous story about 26 of 28 residents in a nursing home having tested positive for Covid-19. There has only been one nurse and one carer available in the home for the past 72 hours as all other staff are Covid-positive. One person has died and another is very ill. This appears to be a repeat of the horrendous position that developed six months ago, which was a nightmare for people. What measures have been taken since then to ensure there is no repeat of those events?

As the Deputy knows, the incubation period for this virus is 14 days so any cases that arose in the past five to 14 days would likely have arisen in any case, regardless of whether the Government had gone to level 3, 4 or 5.

To answer the Deputy's question, the main focus has been on serial testing and carrying out regular testing in nursing homes to identify staff and residents who may be infected early so we can identify those outbreaks and deal with them much more quickly than would be the case in places where this is not happening. There is also additional funding for nursing homes and support with personal protective equipment and other matters. I will be happy to give the Deputy more details on that later.

In the House yesterday, the Taoiseach, speaking about nursing homes, told us we had learned from the first phase of the pandemic. We find this morning that in my constituency, 90% of the residents and staff in a nursing home have now tested positive for Covid-19. A nursing home has been run for the past three days by a cook and two other staff, which is totally unacceptable. I know the Tánaiste does not know the detail of the case but I have had the opportunity to provide the Minister for Health with the information this morning. In fairness to him, he left the Chamber immediately after getting the information in order to act on it. Will the Tánaiste use his good offices to intervene in the case? We do not want to see a repeat of this in nursing homes across the country. I urge the Government to put a panel of staff in place who can go into nursing homes in such scenarios to immediately deal with crises such as the one we now face in my constituency. This would ensure the case would not be repeated and that residents would not be left in such a deplorable condition as they are now.

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I will absolutely look into it once I am finished in the Chamber today. I am reassured to hear Deputy Naughten say the Minister for Health is already on the case, which is important.

Much has been done and more is being done than was the case in spring in the protection of nursing homes. This includes serial testing, personal protective equipment, additional funding and staff but the sad reality that we must all face is that if the virus is circulating at high levels in the community, it will get into nursing homes, hospitals, schools, factories and other places. We all have our part to play in ensuring that does not happen. It includes everybody, including all of us here, doing the right thing, adhering to social distancing, ensuring we wash our hands and following all the hygiene rules. It is really important that if we develop symptoms, we self-isolate and do not go to work or anywhere else. In such a case we should ring the doctor to seek a test and not come out of self-isolation until we get a negative test result and have been asymptomatic for two days. These actions will protect everyone the most.