Navy ship docks in Galway to help with Covid-19 tests

From this week’s Galway City Tribune – The Irish Naval Service has docked the LÉ William Butler Yeats at the Port of Galway for use as part of efforts to fight Covid-19.

The vessel is understood to form part of the HSE’s strategy to expand the number of testing sites across the country – with vessels in Cork and Dublin already being lined up to perform similar testing.

A spokesperson for the Defence Forces confirmed to the Galway City Tribune that the LÉ William Butler Yeats – which is twinned with the city – had been berthed in Galway in the early hours of Wednesday morning to “generate more capacity” to assist the HSE in the fight against coronavirus, but declined to outline the details of their task in the city.

The HSE were due to carry out a safety audit of the vessel and sign off on its use this week, he added.

Naval personnel will reportedly be trained by HSE staff to carry out testing in the coming days, adding to the already numerous testing facilities in the city, including a static testing site at Renmore Community Centre and drive-thru testing area at UHG.

This comes as it was revealed in the first county-by-county breakdown of Covid-19 cases that Galway had 12 confirmed cases of the virus when data was compiled on Monday evening – the fourth highest number of cases behind Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
This is a preview only. To read the rest of this article and extensive coverage of the coronavirus crisis and its impact on Galway, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here.

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