[ad_1]
Some hospitals are already using their intensive care (ICU) augmentation capacity to cope with recent spikes in Covid-19 cases, HSE CEO Paul Reid said.
Cork University Hospital, Letterkenny and Cavan Hospitals have exceeded their normal ICU capacity in recent days.
Hospital admissions for Covid-19 increased 62 percent from October 6 when there were 142 patients in the hospital last week to 230 this week.
Reid said there is now some impact on elective care and other hospital services. Operations were canceled at Cavan General Hospital.
Cork University Hospital has put in additional bed capacity and is seeking private bed capacity.
Beaumont Hospital, one of the largest in the state, is also under pressure as a result of Covid-19, he added.
The number of Covid-19 patients in the hospital dropped from 230 on Tuesday night to 214 on Wednesday night and rose again to 235 on Thursday night, according to the HSE. daily trading report. According to the government Data center there were 238 people in the hospital with Covid-19 on Friday morning. The number of people in ICU units across the state has held steady at 29 on Friday morning.
Mr. Reid noted that the overall trend in numbers remained upward.
He said all hospitals across the state are “under pressure but managing: the main concern is looking to the next few weeks.”
He said that only the public can change current trends in Covid-19 and that they have enough information to do the right thing.
“Let’s not leave frontline workers as our first line of defense. The public is the first line of defense, ”he said at HSE’s weekly briefing.
Cavan General Hospital had the highest number of Covid-19 patients in the hospital with 32 on Wednesday morning.
Dr. Colm Henry, HSE National Clinical Advisor, explained that the “surge” capacity in the ICU is not ideal for treating disease.
Death rates in ICU
He explained that ICU mortality rates in Ireland were half what they were internationally during the spring because the HSE did not generally use the augmentation capacity in the early phase of the pandemic, but instead used existing beds and specialized staff. .
Approximately 21 percent of ICU patients died in Ireland compared to rates of more than 40 percent elsewhere.
Dr. Henry also said that 80 percent of those who test positive for Covid-19 today have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic.
At the beginning of the pandemic, only those with symptoms were evaluated and a higher proportion of them were diagnosed with Covid-19.
Dr. Henry said the mass screening strategy for healthcare workers and close contacts is detecting many more positive cases. Only a minority of them have any symptoms.
Currently, approximately 10 percent of all close contacts of a confirmed case test positive for the disease. The HSE is currently conducting just over 100,000 tests per week with a positivity rate of around 6 percent.
Dr. Henry emphasized that it is not 80 percent of positive Covid-19 cases that are of concern, but 20 percent of those that develop symptoms.
“A significant proportion of people, especially in the older age groups, have the capacity to become seriously ill, need hospitalization or die. There is a strong age correlation with this, ”he said.
Swabs and schools
Reid said more than 103,250 swabs were done in the past week with a response time of 2.1 days and a positivity rate of 5.5 percent.
Some 384 school facilities were identified with a possible case of Covid-19 in the last week of last week.
The number of contact tracing calls went from 18,124 to 22,984 last week. The 27 percent increase is a “great indication of the pressure on our contact tracing teams,” he said.
[ad_2]