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People could be making inappropriate decisions if they rely on a negative result from a COVID-19 antigen test, according to the World Health Organisation.
The tests, which recently went on sale in Lidl, get a result quicker but are not as accurate as other types of coronavirus tests, such as the PCR.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has strongly recommended against people buying and using antigen tests themselves.
It comes after NPHET s modelling expert Professor Philip Nolan compared antigen testing to snake oil in a recent tweet.
However, despite the objections from NPHET and questions from health officials over the reliability of the tests, the Government is recommending that businesses use antigen testing to screen their staff.
Updated / Friday, 14 May 2021
16:29
The Department of Health has been notified of four further deaths associated with Covid-19.
There have also been 425 additional confirmed cases.
There has now been a total of 254,870 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland and 4,941 deaths.
Of the four deaths recorded today, one occurred in January, one occurred in February and two occurred in May.
More than 78% of today s cases are under the age of 45, with 4% in people aged over 65. The median age was 29. As of 11.30am, there were 39 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in ICU.
Speaking at this afternoon s Department of Heath briefing, the Chair of NPHET s Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Professor Philip Nolan said the epidemiological situation of the virus in Ireland is stable , adding that there are strong grounds for optimism .
Cyber gangsters looking for money believed to be behind attack on HSE computer system
The ransomware attack is called Conti which is used by criminal gangs to extort two separate ransoms, one to unlock data by the gangs and the another demand of money not to release sensitive data
Updated
The attack is believed to be the “most significant cybercrime attack” on the Irish State
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From Prof Philip Nolan saying there are "strong grounds for optimism" due to the effects of vaccination, to the identification of 41 cases of a Covid-19 variant of concern, here are five things we learned from the latest NPHET briefing.