Serosurveillance of COVID-19 in Ireland

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus which first emerged in late 2019. It became a notifiable disease in Ireland in February 2020 and resulted in a global pandemic from March 2020 to May 2023. Data on confirmed notified cases of COVID-19 in Ireland can be viewed on the HPSC Respiratory Virus Notification Hub which is updated weekly. 

Several seroprevalence studies were carried out in Ireland since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to enhance the understanding of the population exposure to SARS-COV-2. The ‘Study to Investigate COVID-19 Infection in People Living in Ireland (SCOPI)’ and ‘Prevalence of Antibodies to COVID-19 in Irish Healthcare Workers (PRECISE)’ are two such studies that examined the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in the general population and in healthcare workers respectively.  

In 2021, the National Serosurveillance Programme was established to provide ongoing enhanced surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 by monitoring the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the general population, either from vaccination, prior infection or both.