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Ireland’s medical director has raised concerns about an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.
Tony Holohan said the number of confirmed cases in recent days was higher than health experts had anticipated given the positive trends that had been seen previously since tighter restrictions were introduced.
Dr. Holohan, who heads the National Public Health Emergency Team, warned that progress made to suppress the virus is now “at risk.”
Another 456 cases were recorded on Saturday, along with six more Covid-19-related deaths. All the deaths occurred in November.
The death toll in the country now stands at 1,978, while there have been 67,526 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland since the pandemic began.
As of 2 p.m. Saturday, 254 coronavirus patients were in the hospital, 32 of whom were in intensive care.
Dr. Holohan said the five-day moving average of the number of cases had risen from 354 to 392.
“We have seen higher numbers in the last few days than we expected based on the encouraging trends of the last three weeks,” he said.
“We are concerned that this progress is at risk. We have to remember that the virus is still very active in the community and we cannot lose our guard.
“Nphet will continue to monitor the situation closely for the next few days.”
Ireland is halfway through a second nationwide lockdown, with the government’s highest level of coronavirus restrictions, level 5, in effect through early December.
Dr. Holohan urged people to adhere to well-established infection control measures.
“We all need to focus on what we can do to stop the spread of this disease: wash our hands regularly, cover our faces, stay away from others, avoid crowds, limit our social network, know the symptoms, isolate ourselves, and contact a GP if we have them, ”he said.
“Stay home and restrict our movements if you are a close contact for a confirmed case.”
Previously, another Nphet expert, Professor Philip Nolan, defended the imposition of Level 5 restrictions.
Professor Nolan, who chairs Nphet’s Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group, said that if the country had remained at Level 3, it would currently face 1,000 cases per day, resulting in 1,200 hospitalizations and 150 deaths per month.
It occurs when 511 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Northern Ireland with 10 more deaths.
There are currently 422 patients hospitalized with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, 49 of whom are in the ICU.
The area has been concerned about hospital occupancy in recent weeks and is currently 98 percent.
Across the north, there are 147 active outbreaks of Covid-19 in nursing homes.
PA media
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