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HSE CEO Paul Reid has said there is a “worrying growth” in the number of people entering the hospital for treatment for Covid-19.
Speaking at the HSE weekly briefing, Reid said 238 people are in the hospital with Covid-19, an increase of 24 from last night.
The number of people in intensive care units has dropped slightly to 29.
He said that of the 8,500 people who contracted Covid-19 between September 29 and October 12, 245 people have been admitted to the hospital and 22 admitted to the ICU.
Mr. Reid said that 25% of these hospitalizations have been in people under the age of 35, 27% are between the ages of 35 and 64, and 47% are in the 65 and older category.
He said that nine people ages 35 to 64 have been admitted to the ICU in this time period and 13 have been 65 or older.
Reid said that the number of people in the hospital requiring ventilation as a result of Covid-19 has increased in recent days.
He added that “he would not feel comforted by the number of people who are in ICU.”
As of 8 p.m. last night, there were also 100 suspected cases of the virus in hospitals, of which 11 were in the ICU.
Clinical director Dr. Colm Henry explained that for every 1,000 Covid-19 cases, between 25 and 50 people are admitted to the hospital, and between 2 and 5 people require admission to the ICU.
He said the median time from hospital admission to ICU admission is 2 to 5 days.
Mr. Reid added that the close contact positivity rate for Covid-19 cases is 10%.
Testing capacity
Previously, Reid told RTÉ’s News at One that testing capacity has increased further to 18,000 per day or 126,000 per week, but said the best line of defense is for the public to back the updated restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus.
Reid said more than 1.3 million tests have been completed in Ireland to date.
He said more than 103,250 swabs were taken last week, with a mean end-to-end time of 2.1 days.
Last week 99,260 tests were completed and nearly 23,000 contact tracing calls were made.
He said that of the number of swabs that were taken, more than 64,000 were taken in the community, 21,000 in hospitals and 18,000 as part of ongoing serial testing.
He said more capacity has been developed across the island and using German laboratories.
He made “a call to arms” to the public to defend and support restrictive measures to protect health workers as the number of cases increases.
Hospitals
Mr. Reid said that everyone who works in the health service is extremely concerned about the increase in hospital cases of Covid-19.
He said this is now starting to affect non-Covid elective care in some hospitals, with Cork University Hospital moving to use augmentation capacity with only two empty ICU beds available.
He said increasing capacity building takes on other services, but said that today there are 40 ICU beds available in hospitals across the country.
Reid said there are also concerns about winter and flu season among healthcare workers.
He said the senior HSE staff and CEOs of various hospitals in the country are “extremely anxious about what lies ahead, particularly in November.”
He said they have raised concerns about the level of staff absenteeism in the coming weeks and months, “given the amount of community transmission” of Covid-19.
On behalf of healthcare workers, he called on the public to play their role in protecting frontline healthcare workers.
“Our front-line healthcare workers are the equivalent of our goalie. No good team leaves their goalkeeper exposed and they don’t have a good defense in front of them,” Reid said.
He congratulated the public health teams for the tireless work they have done to date.
Meat and food processing
Reid said 81 meat and food processing facilities were tested in cycle one of serial testing and more than 30,109 tests were conducted.
He said the positivity rate in these settings was 0.42% in cycle one and that cycle two began on October 12.
Nursing homes
On nursing homes, Mr. Reid said “it is impossible to put a steel ring around them”, but confirmed that the HSE is providing intensive support to four nursing homes.
He said serial testing has led to 220,000 nursing home tests, and the positivity rate has been low, 0.38%.
However, he said there is concern that as community transmission increases, residents are more vulnerable.
He said some private nursing homes are now self-cleaning, and the HSE will look to increase serial testing to weekly, if necessary.
Reid said 569 nursing homes and residential care facilities were tested in cycle three of serial tests for this sector.
He said that 59,266 tests were performed with a positivity rate of 0.38% and that cycle four began yesterday.
HSE COO Anne O’Connor said HSE was supporting 1,081 nursing homes.
She said 963 are receiving regular PPE, while one has been classified as a significant problem.
There are 25 nursing homes in the amber category, an increase from Sept. 16-14, which means they require enhanced supports.
Schools
384 educational facilities have undergone massive testing.
Reid said 9,345 children or youth have been tested, with a positivity rate of 1.9%.
Testing and tracing
Dr. Henry said that the PCR test “remains by far the most sensitive test.”
He said it would not encourage disparity in testing and that it is important to maintain clinical governance over the type of test that is used.
He said the pandemic workforce plan identifies the need for 250 employees for the pandemic.
“In the context of uncontrolled community transmission with multiple outbreaks, there is no health system in the world that can adapt to the absolute transmission of a disease for which there is no cure or vaccine,” he said.
Mr. Reid said that 500 people are in the first stage of recruiting for sampling and 80 people have started on the job. He said he expects 100-150 people to be at work each week for the next several weeks.
400 people are in the interview process for contact tracing and 65 started last week. He said he expects 65 to 70 people to start working each week.
He said 5,500 close contacts have been identified through the tracking app, which is used by 1.3 million people.
He said 200,000 people sign up daily.
Emergency departments
Ms. O’Connor said the total number of people using emergency departments and admitted by admission decreased in the past week and this week last year and that this was the case across all age groups.
He said the number of people in carts was also significantly lower than at this time last year.
O’Connor said there were 173 in the carts at 8 am yesterday, describing this as “potentially a break.”
Budget
At the HSE briefing, Reid said he “warmly welcomes” the additional € 4 billion investment in health announced in the 2021 budget.
He said the HSE board will shortly develop a national service plan for 2021 based on the outcome of the budget announcement.
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