Today is final day of walk-in Covid test centre in Athlone

Today (Tuesday) is the final day of Covid-19 testing at a walk-in facility in the car park of Athlone's Regional Sports Centre.

The swabbing centre opened on Friday morning last, and is due to close at 7pm this evening.

A daily average of 234 people presented for testing in Athlone between Friday and Monday.

The temporary centre is aiming to detect asymptomatic cases in order to ensure that people who are carrying the virus, without showing signs of it, self-isolate to protect others.

Dr Niamh Clarke, General Manager for Primary Care with Responsibility for Covid-19 testing in this Community Healthcare Area, explained that people who are displaying Covid-19 symptoms should not attend the walk-in centre but should contact their GP instead.

"If you have symptoms, your GP needs to be aware of your symptoms and of how sick you are.

"They are there to monitor and mind you, whereas we are testing people with no symptoms and who are presenting as 'well'," she said.

On Friday, we recorded this video to show how the Athlone facility works: