Practicalities and Yield from Mass Swabbing for COVID-19 in Residential Care Facilities in the South of Ireland.

Over 19,000 residents and health-care workers in 315 RCFs were swabbed in a once - off mass swabbing of residents and staff in residential care facilities (RCFs) in the Cork/Kerry region in Ireland in April and May 2020. This exercise was in response to epidemiological evidence demonstrating increasing community transmission of COVID-19 and emerging evidence of the vulnerability of older persons, particularly those with underlying medical conditions. The effectiveness of such strategies is uncertain and may depend on both the positive case yield and efficiency of testing turn-around to ensure that timely control measures are put in place.

Measuring the effectiveness of an automated text messaging active surveillance system for COVID-19 in the south of Ireland, March to April 2020.

We report the effectiveness of automated text messaging for active surveillance of asymptomatic close contacts of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the Cork/Kerry region of Ireland. In the first 7 weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, 1,336 close contacts received 12,421 automated texts. Overall, 120 contacts (9.