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Public health authorities are concerned about the number of Covid-19 cases detected in the last week as a result of community transmission, along with an increased number of hospitalizations, the HSE executive director said.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland program, Paul Reid said the average number of cases per day for the past week is 246, up 39% in seven days.
He said 39% of the cases that arise are from the community, not as a result of outbreaks or close contacts.
Reid also said that there are now 77 people with Covid-19 in the hospital, up from 23 last week.
He said ICU admissions have risen from six to 14 in the past week.
Yesterday, the Health Department recorded an additional 240 confirmed cases of the virus and an additional Covid-related death.
Dublin accounted for 119 of the cases, just half of the total.
In expected # COVID-19 restrictions for Dublin, CEO of HSE @paulreiddublin urges people to follow public health advice. “If we continue on the path that we are going … we are heading down a path that could lead us back to the point where we have to take more restrictive action.” pic.twitter.com/FdaZ9Ss4kz
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 18, 2020
Reid said that a very basic set of measures can make a real difference, calling on people to reduce contacts at home and in public settings to prevent the spread of the virus.
He said that we are at an important crossroads and that no one wants to back down and asked everyone to take public health messages seriously.
He said public experts have identified that the spread occurs where people gather, including pubs and restaurants.
He said the growing number of cases of the virus are brought home from the community and are highly communicable, making places where people congregate at home and in public settings are a risk.
He said that if six people meet, five people can become infected very quickly.
Latest coronavirus stories
You were asked how the HSE can ensure that schools are not a major source of # COVID-19 transmission, CEO of HSE @paulreiddublin He says @ TomorrowIreland Test positivity rates in schoolchildren have dropped and “we are not seeing a high level of transmission among children.” https://t.co/kf9YPaIaqb pic.twitter.com/7j83HpazGd
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 18, 2020
The number of cases in schools is low and evidence shows that transmission rates between children and adults in schools are not a concern, Reid said.
He said there have been more school-age children and adults showing symptoms but not testing positive.
The impact has been limited to closing a capsule or a classroom if a case arises, never a school, he said.
Mr. Reid said that the first few weeks of reopening schools are challenging, but overall it has been managed very well, with the vast majority of tests being returned within 24 hours.
Consultant asks the government to address the capacity of the UCI
An emergency medicine consultant at Sligo Hospital has said that it is time to address the lack of capacity for intensive care beds in hospitals rather than trying to reassure people that there is not a problem.
Speaking about the same program, Dr. Fergal Hickey said that at the beginning of the pandemic the full capacity for Covid-19 was used, along with a decrease in attendance to emergency departments of hospitals.
This is over now that the system has returned to pre-Covid operations.
He expressed concern about the lack of available intensive care beds if there is an increase in hospitalizations as a result of the Covid-19 virus.
Dr. Hickey said the 2009 Prospectus Report on Intensive Care Excellence indicated that there were then 289 beds in intensive care.
He recommended that 418 beds would be needed by 2010 and 579 by 2020.
Dr Hickey said this shows that long before the pandemic, the country did not have sufficient capacity in the ICU.
There are now 281 ICU beds in the system.
Dr. Hickey said that recovery areas in hospital theaters and private capacity can be used for ICU, but the reality is that we do not have critical care capacity.
“We need to do something more dramatic than make small incremental improvements every now and then,” Dr. Hickey said.
He said we have to take it much more seriously and create additional capacity “and we have to do it now.”
Mr. Reid said that additional intensive care staff is needed so that the number of ICU beds can be increased.
He said the great work of emergency consultants had built the so-called “scaling capacity” to increase ICU beds to over 300 and at the height of the pandemic there was capacity for 400 ICU beds.
However, he said he shares the concerns of consultants and others about the general low level of bed capacity in the ICU.
He said that part of the 600 million euros committed to the HSE by the government will be invested in increasing the capacity of the UCI.
He said everyone has a role to play in minimizing the spread of the virus and keeping friends and family out of the hospital and ICU beds.
Mr. Reid said “we can’t let that happen.”
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