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The Health Department has confirmed 938 more Covid-19 cases and 13 more deaths, while health chiefs believe that a new variant of the coronavirus found in Britain is now present in Ireland.
There have now been a total of 82,155 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 2,184 virus-related deaths in Ireland since the pandemic began.
The number of people in the ICU is 25, three less than yesterday. As of 2 p.m. today, 251 Covid-19 patients were in the hospital.
There have been 24 Covid-related hospitalizations in the last 24 hours. The Health Protection Surveillance Center has also reported 11 confirmed cases.
Of the current cases, 416 are men and 517 are women and 65% are under 45 years of age. The average age is 36 years.
The regional breakdown showed 300 people tested positive in Dublin, 110 in Cork, 72 in Limerick, 68 in Donegal, 41 in Kildare and the remaining 347 cases are spread across 21 other counties.
The current epidemiological situation is the most serious since last March. The disease has spread throughout the country and in all age groups. At all times act as if you, or the people you come in contact with, are infectious with # COVID-19
– Dr. Ronan Glynn (@ronan_glynn) December 23, 2020
The test samples also suggest that a new variant of Covid-19 found in Britain is present in Ireland, but it is not the only one responsible for the rapid spread of the disease.
The probable presence of the most infectious variant is based on preliminary data from a selection of samples from last weekend.
In a statement, the director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, Dr Cillian de Gascun, said: “Preliminary data would suggest, based on a selection of samples tested over the weekend, that the new UK variant is present in Ireland.
“However, given the timing of the samples tested, it would appear that the new variant is not solely responsible for the recent increase in the number of cases seen in Ireland.”
Speaking later at tonight’s NPHET briefing, Dr. De Gascun said they were waiting to confirm that it was the variant strain.
He said: “Based on the epidemiology in the UK, based on travel between the two countries, and based on the timeline, those results are likely to reflect the presence of the UK variant.
“At the moment, it would not by itself explain the significant increase in the number of cases that we have found.”
Dr. De Gascun said that based on very small numbers, the variant was found mainly in the east of the country. He said some evidence suggests it was found in Dublin, but it couldn’t be more accurate than that.
He said they still did not know if someone who had contracted Covid19 can already contract the new strain and said that the new strain identified in South Africa and the new strain identified in Britain share a common mutation that has an impact on respiratory cell binding and, therefore, it affects transmissibility.
The chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group said the number of cases had doubled in less than a week.
Also speaking at the NPHET briefing, Professor Philip Nolan said that the epidemiological situation had deteriorated even in the 48 hours since Monday’s briefing.
He said the most recent wave of the virus was rising as rapidly as the first in March.
Speaking at the NPHET briefing, Professor Philip Nolan says that the “epidemiological situation” has deteriorated further in the last 48 hours. | Read more: https://t.co/dFdUJRpUci pic.twitter.com/6oQsOy9kxS
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 23, 2020
Professor Nolan said that the reproduction rate is currently estimated at 1.5 to 1.8 and said that if this continues, there will be a significant number of cases in early January.
He said that if the R number gets closer to 1, there will be 1,000 cases per week in the new year, and if the R number increases even to 1.2 cases, it will increase to 2,000 cases per day in February.
Professor Nolan said the growth rate is indeed at its highest rate since March.
He said the 14-day incidence is 153 per 100,000 and, “very worrying,” there has been an increase in the number of hospitalized.
Professor Nolan said there were 22 hospitalizations a day on average, “above what a steady 14 a day has been for a good number of weeks,” with 24 being admitted today.
He said ICU numbers are stable and slowly declining with just under 30 over the past week, but on average there have been two admissions, an increase in the number of admissions per day.
Professor Nolan said that the number of deaths per day remains virtually constant at five to seven per day for more than six weeks.
He said the demand for tests has increased very significantly, with 14,500 tests per day with a positivity rate of more than 5%.
Yesterday 20,000 tests were carried out and they had a positivity rate of 5.2%.
Professor Nolan said that the five-day moving average is moving very quickly. He said the number of cases continues to rise in Dublin and the rest of the country and that the growth rate in Dublin may be slightly higher than in the rest of the country.
He said that the virus was increasing in all age groups and this was putting the most vulnerable at risk and said that older people were protected in the period of October and November, but this is not the case now.
Professor Nolan said that we are beginning to see the number of patients and staff in healthcare settings becoming infected increasing, and we are also seeing the number of people receiving long-term care increasing.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s pub and restaurant closures, Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan said: “Every form of discretionary activity that each of us can remove from our individual experiences now, in the days and weeks to come, will contribute. to limit transmission.
“Review your Christmas plans to ensure that social contacts are limited and that hand hygiene, physical distance, ventilation, and face covering are in place if you must have visitors in your home.”
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