Antigen tests are finally being rolled out. We have affordability issues, which I hope will be overcome. I do not want to focus on those now. We also have issues regarding how the tests are being used or should be used. I do not necessarily want to go into that now either but over the course of this pandemic, we have learned that antigen tests are best used in a serial and regular manner in places such as large building sites and big companies, where they have been used to catch asymptomatic cases. In the medium to long term, is there a role for regular antigen testing in households, and in schools and other businesses, in order to keep this virus suppressed throughout 2022 and 2023?

Yes, but it has to be done in a routine way and not in reaction to symptoms. That is the key point. The concern of the Chief Medical Officer is around the use and overuse of antigen testing. When people are symptomatic, they should get PCR tests straight away. By the end of September, more than 100,000 antigen tests were used in agriculture, for example, in food premises and so on. The higher education sector has used approximately 22,000 antigen tests and in acute hospital settings, which have PCR tests, about 3,000 have been carried out. Likewise, an antigen testing programme is in place in residential care facilities. On close contacts, more than 61,000 fully vaccinated asymptomatic close contacts were registered for delivery of antigen kits since 28 October. That is a lot in a short space of time. Antigen testing is being rolled out and the Minister for Health will outline further developments in respect of its continued use.