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According to the HSE, there has been a drop in the number of long-term residential care facilities that were “of greatest concern” in relation to Covid-19’s serious difficulties.
The HSE is supporting 520 different centers and has seen a reduction in the number of sites out of concern. HSE chief operating officer Anne O’Connor said 56 centers remain of great concern, but 417 remain stable after HSE’s intervention.
This provides a “level of assurance that things have really improved in relation to residential care for the elderly,” Ms. O’Connor said in a briefing on Sunday. Sites include facilities for seniors, people with disabilities and mental health issues, and direct provision centers.
Ms. O’Connor said tests for staff and residents at 577 nursing homes were completed and covered 30,000 employees and 28,000 residents. She said there were 371 confirmed infections in nursing homes. She said there were still 161 ICU beds available and 1,242 general hospital beds.
HSE Executive Director Paul Reid said the number of Covid-19 patients in the ICU continues to decline with a reduction of more than 55 percent from its peak of 160 in the ICU.
Reid said the tests had met all the demands this week and was still slated to hit 100,000 tests by May 18.
In a weekly briefing on Sunday, he said the time it takes for a hyssop test to produce results is 2.4 days, which is in line with many of the other countries overall. He said contact tracking was done within 1.5 days of that. He said HSE would start a scoping exercise to develop a future test and trace business model.
Reid said that the great pressure they had with personal protective equipment was the masks, due to a change in the definition of the use of masks for all health workers. He said that the demand for masks had increased from 200,000 daily to more than 1 million masks.
Speaking about the return to non-Covid services, Reid said cancer would be a priority, as well as cardiovascular surgery and other treatments. He said it was important to return to services such as mental health, home respite, and services for children and families and primary health services.
HSE has also started a new advertising campaign called Hold Firm, which urges people to follow the guidelines that it says are inspired by the words of President Michael D Higgins in his 1993 poem Take Care.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Simon Harris has urged people not to bend or stretch public health standards.
“If you’re thinking of flexing or stretching public health standards, please don’t. And to anyone who is, remember this number: 72. The number of people in the ICU with Covid-19 fighting for their life and health “he wrote on Twitter:
Mr. Harris said some people see what could be possible starting May 18 and “think it is okay to start that now.” The bottom line is: it is not. It is dangerous. Every day counts. The reason these restrictions are in place until then: to save your life and keep your loved ones well. ”
Figures published on Saturday confirmed that 18 more people died of coronavirus in the State, as the number of confirmed cases increased by 219.
This brings the total number of Covid-19-related deaths to 1,446, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
There have been 22,760 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Republic.
Analysis of 22,495 cases known through Thursday by the Center for Health Protection Surveillance (HPSC) shows that the average age of those who contracted the virus is 49 years.
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