[ad_1]
HSE Chief Executive Officer Paul Reid has asked the public to continue to follow public health guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid-19, even if the restrictions are eased tomorrow as expected.
“Keep the basics in the foreground as we appreciate the opportunity we can have to meet our friends and family over Christmas,” he said at HSE’s weekly Covid-19 briefing in Dublin.
Mr. Reid said: “No matter what the government decides tomorrow, protect yourself and your family for the next few weeks by reducing contacts to a minimum, avoiding congregated indoor environments as much as possible, wear masks, wash your hands and keep social distance.
The HSE chief said that as the country reopens, the executive will remain concerned about a possible “lag effect” between the time of an increase in cases and the associated increase in hospital admissions.
He said that this concern will be greater given that an increase in cases may occur in January, which is the time of greatest activity for health services.
Reid said it was an obvious concern as the country moves from a place where the vast majority of the public has been so conscious of reducing their contacts and wearing masks that until December those protections would “drop.”
In the same briefing, HSE Clinical Director Dr Colm Henry said there had been a drop in Ireland’s 14-day incidence rate to 108 per 100,000 population.
HSE’s Dr Colm Henry says the 14-day Covid-19 incidence rate in Ireland is 108, down from 307 on October 25; says the hospital situation is “stable” | https://t.co/UgFbce0Eqa pic.twitter.com/D2OR3IB0Gt
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) November 26, 2020
Dr Henry said that Ireland now has the third lowest incidence rate in 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants of 31 EU countries measured with the same methodology, behind Iceland and Finland.
He said that while the test positivity rate had approached 8% in October, it is now approaching 3%. He said the reproductive number, or R rate, was between 0.7 and 0.9.
Dr. Henry said that healthcare workers account for 17% of all Covid-19 cases to date.
He said that it seems at this stage that for the second time a situation in which health systems are overwhelmed has been avoided.
Dr. Henry said that unfortunately some health systems in Europe had been overwhelmed. But he said the outbreaks are a reminder of how virulent the virus is.
In the week ending Nov. 21, Dr. Henry said there were 772 outbreaks, of which 652 occurred in private homes, 15 in hospitals, and five in nursing homes.
Latest coronavirus stories
On testing and tracing, Reid said more than 80,000 swabs were taken in the past seven days with 77,600 tests completed and 11,500 contact tracing calls.
He said they were heading into a process they call “source research,” in which they initially look back at about seven days of data.
He said that as the virus reduces in the community, it gives them an opportunity to focus on investigating the source.
Reid said they will try to identify where people were, such as specific locations to try to find super spreader locations where people may have been and then identify other contacts that may have been at those locations.
He said this is something that public health teams already do, but that the plan would be to do it on a broader scale involving contact tracing teams, adding that they are starting a pilot with the intention of implementing it further in December. .
He said that their main role should remain in the speed of contact tracing that they have focused a lot on.
Reid said 269 people are currently being treated for Covid-19 in Irish hospitals, with 36 in the ICU.
He said the HSE is “entering the winter of this year in a stronger position than last year” due to a decrease “of about 14/15%” in the number of presentations to the emergency department.
Reid said there is a 70% reduction in the number of people waiting in carts this year compared to last year.
Between November 10 and 23, 339 people were admitted to the hospital for Covid-19.
Of these, 4.1% are between 0 and 18 years old, none in the ICU, 24% are between 19 and 24 years old, none in the ICU, 26% are between 35 and 44 years old, five in the ICU, 212 people aged 65 and over, with six in ICU.
Reid said there are six “significant” outbreaks in hospitals, which “remain a concern.”
The affected hospitals are Tallaght University Hospital in Dublin, Naas General Hospital in Kildare, St Columcilles Hospital in Dublin, Letterkenny University Hospital in Donegal, Limerick University Hospital and St Luke General Hospital in Kilkenny, with a total of 535 people affected.
[ad_2]