In this thread I'm going to show you in reverse what happened last night with a series of availability snapshots.
First where we are at 10:03, which is the worst I've seen. Essentially no availability except in connaught.
This scale of depletion is the strongest yet in the 2 weeks I have been tracking it. It happened nearly. At 9:50...
at 8:20...
That was the situation at breakfast time. That remarkably strong loss of availability was already set in stone 7 hours earlier however (and the HSE knew it).
Here is the picture at 51 minutes past midnight, when 19k was added. Already significantly down.
This fall in availability was dramatic and sudden just after midnight, when again the HSE systems suffered system outages for the second time in 15 hours.
Here is 34 minutes past midnight. Better availability across the east and the west coast, but already significantly down
Here at 0:21. notice the volatility - this is due to massive parallel attempts to book slots. So many being booked in the south that availability actually rises after those booking are complete and slots temporarily held back from being offered to others are released.
Due to this volatility, it hard to get a picture of how many slots are free, but the picture is clear. A massive surge from midnight saw an enormous reduction in availability. By 0:21 there are just 12k left out of 19k.
I'd be very surprised in Paul Reid was not called.
This is the earliest data I have at 4 minutes past midnight. This should all be green, but already we cn see very significant depletion. in fact about 3.5k appointments are no longer available at this point and the system has once again called over to the general public.
Current state of play with HSE PCR test availability.
Not as the news is presently covering, a "not on the day" problem, but for most of the country now a 2 day to test problem. That pink slice from Galway to Limerick will most likely go red shortly. The orange region in ~1hr.
This is the worst day I've seen. Likely to just be Mayo and Donegal left with availability tomorrow by teatime.
"while the system is coping, it obviously cannot meet the demand that is being required on a same day basis."
This quote hides the scale of the problem. By 10:30 across most of the country bar connaught,the wait for a booking is ~46 hours.
In short, the system is not, as @paulreiddublin claimed, meeting even the lighter demand of 80% of people obtaining a booking within 24 hours or seeking one.
Up till today, the pattern for the daily collapse of HSE PCR test availability for two days was simple. But midday everything east of the Shannon was gone but connaught held on to availability.
worst day so for for PCR HSE test booking availability
The picture this morning was horrendous by 9am, and it's continued to get worse. I think Galway will probably run out today. Offaly under unusual pressure given the very large allocation each day, for the second day running.
remember when a county runs out on this picture, that's it not merely for the next day but for 2 days. This picture already incorporates the next day into availability.
So for everything in red its Friday before you can get a test in the online booking system.