More patients going into hospital for elective procedures are testing positive for Covid-19, according to the laboratory manager at the National Maternity Hospital.
Everyone going into hospital for surgery must be tested for the disease but health workers say they have noticed an increase in positive tests in the past couple of weeks.
Marie Culleton says they have noticed a rise in the number of people presenting with the virus.
"We were still doing testing for all the patients who were coming in for surgery so they need to be tested within 72 hours of coming in for the surgery," said Ms Culleton.
"The negativity rate, they were all negative but we are seeing a change.
"There is much more positivity in that group of pre-operative patients in the last two to three weeks."
