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The deputy chief medical officer has urged people to cut all but necessary contacts, work from home if possible and “act like it’s March 2020” due to the current Covid-19 situation in Ireland.
Dr. Ronan Glynn said that sticking to the “letter of the guide” is no longer enough, people must instead “stick to the spirit” to keep themselves and others safe.
Speaking yesterday on RTÉ’s Six One News, Dr. Glynn said: “We must all act as one now and we must all act as if it is March 2020, unfortunately, once again. I know this is a very difficult message, but it is one that people really need to hear tonight.
There is no benefit to speculating on how bad things could get, things are already pretty bad as things currently are.
“Tonight there are almost 700 families across the country who have people in the hospital, there are 60 families across the country who have people in intensive care.”
Yesterday 4,962 additional cases of Covid-19 and seven deaths were confirmed in Ireland.
In September, Dr. Glynn advised people to cut their close contacts in half.
He said last night that people should “cut off all but the absolutely essentials in the next week.”
“I know there have been many times where we’ve said that the next five days, the next seven days, the next ten days is a really critical period, but that has never been more true than it is while I’m here tonight.” said the Dr. Glynn said.
He advised people to focus on the next few days, adding that “it is in our power to change this.”
“We believe it is essential that employers make it as easy for employees to work from home as possible,” he said.
We need each sector, each organization, each community to look at the numbers, in particular to look at the very worrying numbers in our hospitals and critical care. Those numbers have doubled in less than a week.
“There are many people who listen to this program who are infected and will sadly end up in the hospital in the next few days, but we must do everything possible to ensure that as few people as possible are infected.
“To do that, we need all the people across the country to act like they are contagious, to cut off their contacts.”
He said that “in particular” people with medical conditions and the elderly should “stay home if possible.”
Hospitals
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr Conor Deasy, consultant in emergency medicine at Cork University Hospital, said there were currently 100 nurses out of work at the facility due to a coronavirus diagnosis or as a result of being a close contact.
The hospital’s ICU wards are at capacity, he said, but stressed that anyone who needs ICU care will receive it and that staff from other areas of the hospital are being reassigned to care for Covid patients if necessary.
Deasy said some face-to-face outpatient appointments had been rescheduled for the following week, but that the hospital was prioritizing urgent cancer care and those treatments were continuing as normal.
He added that the virus was so widespread in the community that, in some cases, people who came for treatment for injuries such as broken bones tested positive for Covid.
He added that he did not want people with serious conditions like heart problems or strokes to stay away due to fears about the virus rising, as happened last spring, and stressed that the emergency department was open for those in need.
However, he recommended that people who did not need to go to the ER should also consider other local options, such as their GP or a private clinic.
Some people had been “caught” by freezing weather in recent days, he said, adding that while it was never a good time to fall or break, people should take care of themselves as they didn’t want to end up looking for one. emergency. careful during this period.
Speaking earlier on the show, Intensive Care Society Vice President and Beaumont Hospital consultant Alan Gaffney said that the ICU community in Ireland is “very concerned at this time.”
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Gaffney said: “The problem at the moment, of course, is that we are in the midst of the usual winter surge, so our ICU occupancy rate is around 87-90%, which would not be unusual for this. time of the year.
“But of course in this situation we have trends that are certainly moving in the wrong direction and, in fact, we had 12 admissions to the UCI in the last 24 hours.”
Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan said last night that this is a “critical moment.”
“We are seeing a really significant increase in infection, which is leading to a very rapid increase in both hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care units,” he said.
“This is not only unsustainable for the healthcare system, but also a deeply concerning level of preventable disease and suffering that we must work together to address as quickly as possible.”
Additional information for Daragh Brophy
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