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Ireland COVID-19: LIVE updates as health officials prepare to announce another large number of new coronavirus cases
Health officials are set to announce another extremely high number of new coronavirus cases in Ireland today.
The HSE executive director warned that around 7,000 new cases a day are likely to arrive this week as worrying times loom across the country.
Health Chief Paul Reid described the current situation as “terrifying” and emphasized that the health service will vaccinate people 24 hours a day to ensure the vulnerable are protected as quickly as possible.
It comes as yesterday’s figures saw nearly 5,000 new cases of the virus in Ireland, which had hospitalized 730 more people and left another 65 in the ICU.
Speaking at Newstalk Breakfast, the HSE CEO said Ireland “has run out of adjectives to describe how serious it is right now.”
He said: “The trajectory that we are seeing would tell us in January that we could be increasing to 1,500-2,000 hospitalized cases, and an increase in ICU from around 250 to 430. That’s how serious it is.
“I tell everyone: we can stop this, we can turn it around: we have to.”
He added: “We were looking at one day last week, if we calculated the close contacts people had, we would have had a demand of over 50,000.
“I cannot say this more clearly: if you are a close contact, you should [still] restrict their movements for 14 days. “
The HSE is working to identify any contacts that patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.
The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on key COVID-19 indicators in the community.
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