THERE has been a sharp increase in the number of people referred for Covid-19 testing in Donegal this past week.
HSE figures provided to Donegal Daily show that 80% more coronavirus tests were carried out at the county test centre last week compared to the previous week.
382 tests were carried out at the Donegal Community Testing Centre at O’Donnell Park Letterkenny between 3rd and 9th August.
That’s 80% more than than the previous week’s figure of 212 up to 2nd August.
From mid-July, the average number of tests carried out at the facility was just over 200 each week.
However in the previous seven days, there were, on average, 55 tests per day conducted at the O’Donnell Park facility.
O’Donnell Park is the currently the designated Community Testing Centre in County Donegal. A spokesperson for the HSE said HSE Estate colleagues are reviewing a number of alternative site options in the Letterkenny area.
There have been 490 cases of the coronavirus detected in Donegal since the beginning of the outbreak.
Fourteen new cases have been confirmed in the county since Sunday 2nd August.
Health officials last night confirmed that a further 57 new cases have been diagnosed in the Republic. No new deaths were reported.