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The number of Covid-19 patients in the hospital has fallen below 500 for the first time this year, according to figures from the Health Service Executive.
Last night, 494 confirmed cases were recorded in hospitals, compared to 540 earlier in the day.
It means that cases have dropped below 500 for the first time this year.
On January 1, there were 508 Covid-19 patients in hospitals and the number increased during January to a peak of
2,020 cases on January 18.
This was the highest number seen in hospitals during any of the three waves in Ireland.
The peak of hospital cases during the first wave was 881 patients on April 18 of last year. The peak of hospital cases during the second wave was lower, 354 on October 24 of last year.
The number of patients with the disease in Intensive Care Units is also slowly decreasing.
The HSE said there were 115 Covid-19 patients in intensive care last night, while the National Public Health Emergency Team said there have been no Covid-19 admissions in intensive care units in the last 24 hours.
At the end of January, the peak of ICU cases during the pandemic was registered in 221 patients.
Overall, the number of daily Covid cases and hospital cases are declining.
The chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group said the number of cases continues to decline, albeit slowly.
At a Health Department briefing last night, Professor Philip Nolan said that the overall test positivity rate and the number of admissions per day to the hospital appear to be declining at the moment.
He said that they are seeing an 8-10% decrease per week in terms of the case count and we are now in the phase that we were in early December.
“The wave that we just had, that huge burden of disease is coming to an end, the impact on hospitals is coming to an end,” he said.
Professor Nolan said that all he tells us is that we have dealt with that problem.
“We need to move forward in terms of further reducing the number of cases to give us options for the future,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronan Glynn said parents should wear masks while dropping off their children at school after schools began a gradual reopening yesterday.
Children under the age of 13 are not formally recommended to wear a mask, he said, but any child who wants to wear a mask should not be discouraged.
Dr. Glynn said the issue of children wearing masks will be discussed by NPHET this week, though he doesn’t necessarily anticipate a change.
Elsewhere, the Northern Ireland Power-Sharing Executive is expected to release its plan to break out of the Covid-19 lockdown today.
More than a third of its adult population has already received a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
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