Professor Luke O'Neill has said coronavirus has to be "hunted" like an animal - and testing is the way to do that.
The leading immunologist has welcomed a pilot scheme at a Cork nursing home as a 'superb development'.
Oaklodge Nursing Home in Cloyne, Co Cork says they want to make sure they can 'test and keep testing' residents and staff for the virus.
They've teamed up with the Irish-based ROQU group to trial a new digital 'health passport' system, aimed at "proactively monitoring our staff, residents' and visitors' health status in real time".
ROQU says their system has been designed for use with all official COVID-19 testing types and has been future proofed for future testing methods - including a rapid antigen test which can offer results within 15 minutes.
Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show today, Professor O'Neill said a shift towards the likes of saliva and antigen tests could ultimately give much quicker results than the typical swab one.
He said if the pilot scheme in Cork works out, it should be rolled out across all nursing homes, schools and universities.
Professor O'Neill explained: "You've got to hunt the virus down - it's like an animal, you've got to hunt it.
"Even if you get 60% or 70% success... you're hunting it down and halving the risk. Some of these tests might be 90%, and that's still a pretty good number overall."
He said rapid and serialised testing will be something that's "especially relevant to schools" as they reopen their doors.
Impact of COVID-19 on children
Professor O'Neill also spoke about how research is continuing to look at the impact of the virus on children.
He said a "huge study" - the results of which were published in the British Medical Journal - looked at children with COVID-19 who were admitted to hospitals in the UK.
It found that "severe disease was rare and death exceptionally rare".
Professor O'Neill explained: "99% recovered fully - the median age was 4.6, and 35% were under 12.
"It's a really detailed study... it's good news for children. They do very, very well with this disease.
"It kind of confirms this is a disease of older people, as we knew anyway - but science has to keep confirming this."
