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Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronan Glynn has urged the public to keep contacts to a minimum as the number of people infected with Covid-19 continues to rise.
Almost 5,000 new cases and another seven deaths were reported yesterday.
Now a backlog of around 9,000 positive cases is clearing up and that’s part of the reason the latest numbers are so high.
685 people are now in hospital with Covid-19, with 62 of whom are in intensive care; Those numbers have doubled in less than a week.
Both public health officials and politicians are deeply concerned by the upward trajectory of these tough numbers.
Dr. Glynn cautioned that while the vaccine was cause for hope, it would not protect against new infections in the critical next two weeks.
Many of those already infected will end up in the hospital in the next few days, and the priority now is to prevent new infections.
Since today is traditionally a “back to work” day, Dr. Glynn urged employers to make it easier for as many employees as possible to work from home.
Everyone should behave as if they were infected, should stay home and cut contacts to the bare minimum.
Meanwhile, Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan warned that the rise in infections and hospitalizations was not only unsustainable for the healthcare system, but also reflected a deeply troubling level of preventable disease and suffering.
The vice president of the Irish Intensive Care Society has said that the ICU community is “very concerned” at this time.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Beaumont Hospital consultant Dr Alan Gaffney said that ICU occupancy is currently between 87% and 90%.
That’s not unusual for this time of year, he said, but he warned that the system is under increasing pressure.
Dr. Gaffney said that there were 12 admissions to the ICU in the last 24 hours and that there are currently 66 Covid-19 patients in the ICU, representing three times the number of Covid patients in the last eight days.
He said the ICU system has never had to be tested beyond its full capacity, and while there are plans to allow this to happen, it is a troubling prospect.
He said there are currently about 280 beds in the ICU system, which can be increased to 350. Each hospital has come up with a plan to do this safely, he added.
If this were to happen, Dr. Gaffney said, nurses and staff from other areas of the hospital would have to be recruited to help the ICU.
He said that hiring professionals from other services would not be ideal, but it has been done before and we can be sure it will be done again with success.
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