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A large increase in Covid-19 cases is expected in the coming days as the impact of pre-Christmas socialization is reflected in the incidence of the coronavirus in Ireland.
The Covid leader for the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP), Dr. Nuala O’Connor, has asked the public to limit their contacts in the coming days and on New Years Eve, as it is the behavior of the people what will have a significant impact on the third wave of the virus and how long it lasts.
“This is an opportunity to affect the trajectory of the virus,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“I would appeal to people to limit their contacts. Personal behavior will be essential. “
Dr. O’Connor said she expected a large increase in the number of Covid cases in the coming days, as GPs had noticed a 65 percent increase in referrals for Covid testing last week. During the first week of December they had made 25,000 referrals, by the fourth week of December that had risen to 70,000, he said.
“We are going to see the impact of socializing before and during the Christmas period. That will affect the numbers in the next week to 10 days. “
It was alarming that the number of contacts for some was 15 people, he added.
The National Public Health Emergency Team reported another 765 confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Monday, as well as another coronavirus-related death.
However, the number of people hospitalized with coronavirus has “increased dramatically” in the past two days, according to medical director Dr. Tony Holohan.
On Monday there were 359 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, 41 of whom had been admitted in the previous 24 hours. About 30 patients were in intensive care, five of whom were admitted in the previous 24 hours.
Dr. Holohan said public health officials were also concerned about a “sharp increase in positivity rates” from community tests, a metric that indicates the prevalence of the virus among the general population.
The current seven-day average rate of positive tests had risen to 9.2%, up from 5.2% on December 18.
The government may be forced to implement full Level 5 Covid-19 restrictions due to these concerns, with a high-level government source saying that “it cannot be ruled out that the government will take further action in the coming days if the situation continues to deteriorate.” .
“While we are seeing much lower numbers today and yesterday, the government is being told that it is artificially very low” due to the time of year, and “there is an expectation that we will see very, very high numbers later this week,” Said the source.
Dr. O’Connor said another cause for concern was the number of people who declared themselves when they had learned of a contact that had tested positive.
Anyone who has been a close contact should stay home and restrict their movements for 14 days.
“We have people calling to get tested. Timing is important, we can’t do it too early, we try to schedule it for day 5.
“We want people to stay home and wait for the contact tracers to call them,” he said.
In Ireland there was “a bit of an obsession with tests,” but it was people’s behavior that was important, rather than the test itself, said Dr O’Connor.
Paul Reid, CEO of Health Service Executive (HSE), said there were a “growing and worrying” number of people who did not respond to calls from contact tracker over the Christmas period. The tracking teams were a “valuable resource” against the spread of Covid-19, he wrote on Twitter.
An HSE spokeswoman said that if people did not answer the phone to contact the trackers, they would leave a voice message. Tracking teams would try to contact people up to five times over two days, he said.
The first Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines will be administered today in Ireland, at Dublin’s St James’s and Beaumont Hospitals, Cork University Hospital and Galway University Hospital.
Among the first to receive the vaccine are an ICU staff nurse, a Covid ward nurse, a junior physician, and an allied healthcare professional.
There are currently just under 10,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech two-step vaccine in the country. About 30,000 more are expected to arrive today.
This will be followed by 40,000 per week during January and early February. The plan is to vaccinate 20,000 people a week from the beginning of January, and this will increase to 40,000 over the course of the month and into February.
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