[ad_1]
The HSE CEO has asked people to make personal judgments about what is possible, sensible and safe to do in the coming weeks.
Paul Reid said that the health service was heading into the Christmas and New Year period in a much stronger position than it would have in the past due to investment and existing supports to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, he said the HSE wanted to avoid a large number of cases with a large number of contacts all together at a time of year where there is normally a peak demand for health services.
“There is a high demand in a normal year for non-Covid services, but our challenge this year is doubled. We will have to meet the demand, but also the demand for what we are seeing in the highest projected cases,” he said.
Reid said he wants to “avoid a dangerous confluence of risks.”
He said that everyone could look to 2021 with greater hope and optimism because of what has come up with the vaccine.
“There is no doubt that the appearance of the vaccine will be good for the health service, the economy and society and the public welfare,” he said.
But he said there would be a long period of time before society gets the necessary level of benefit from the vaccination program, and in the meantime, public health measures will be absolutely key.
Mr. Reid said the high-level working group on vaccine launch readiness has been meeting throughout the week to finalize an overall strategy.
He said the plan will be presented to the Taoiseach and the Minister of Health tomorrow and is expected to be presented to the Cabinet next Tuesday.
HSE chief Paul Reid says it is important for people to make “reasonable” personal judgments during Christmas. However, he also said: “We can all look to 2021 with greater hope and optimism.” pic.twitter.com/cc753SgY7M
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 10, 2020
Reid said there has been “a slow but downward trend” in hospital Covid-19 cases in recent days.
203 people were being treated for the virus as of this morning, of which 37 are in intensive care units.
Reid said the projected high number of cases of the virus over Christmas could be amplified by a large number of contacts for each of those cases.
He said: “The personal judgments we make in terms of how we live, how we visit and how we meet our friends and family during Christmas will be key to protecting the health service.”
Reid said that a higher number of cases as people mix more and more contacts would lead to higher demand in hospitals.
He urged people to “really cut down and limit our contacts in the coming weeks.”
“The key message is to keep all contacts as constant and low as possible during Christmas.”
He also appealed to people to come forward immediately to test if they have any systems for the virus.
Mr. Reid confirmed that the HSE was reclassifying partners of pregnant women as “essential companions,” allowing them to attend fetal abnormality scans starting next Monday.
She said that visits by couples and spouses to maternity services were significantly restricted due to Covid-19 to protect women, babies and staff.
Screening for fetal abnormalities is usually done at 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Mr Reid said it was possible to allow partners to be present due to low levels of Covid-19 in the community and said the situation would be closely monitored to ensure everyone’s protection.
Reid said more than two million tests for Covid-19 had already been completed and that 78,500 swabs had been taken in the last week.
He said there was a 3% increase in demand for testing in the community and there was an average of 3.5 contacts per person.
He said details of coverage for testing and tracking during Christmas and the New Year will be released shortly.
Mr. Reid said the HSE was also reaching out to GPs to provide enhanced after-hours coverage during that period.
The lowest incidence rate in 14 days in the EU
The HSE clinical director said Ireland had the lowest 14-day Covid 19 incidence rate in the EU.
However, Dr. Colm Henry added that experience in other countries shows that success is fragile.
He said it would be some time before the vaccine protected people to the point where herd immunity was achieved and warned that the virus would not take off Christmas.
Dr. Henry said that the five-day moving average appeared to have stalled at around 286 cases per day.
It paid tribute to the young people among whom the most dramatic decrease in cases has been seen.
He said they had gone from a rate of 432 cases per 100,000 people to 36 per 100,000.
Dr. Henry said this was due to a collective effort to change millions of small individual behaviors, such as avoiding crowded areas and reducing contacts.
He warned that people should adhere to public health measures while everyone waits for the vaccine to go into effect.
Dr. Henry said that the development of the vaccine was an important stage, but it was just one more stage in a considerable journey.
So far there are no confirmed cases of flu
Chief Operating Officer Anne O’Connor said HSE community testing centers weren’t seeing a large increase in cases and didn’t see real evidence of the flu.
He said there had been an increase in the number of people taking the flu vaccine compared to this time last year.
When asked about the low level of flu cases, Dr. Henry said there had been no laboratory confirmed flu cases so far.
This pattern had also been observed in the southern hemisphere and in other European countries.
He said that there could be a variation in the level of influenza observed from year to year.
But he said it was also possible that it was due to the overlap between the group of people who are susceptible to becoming seriously ill from the flu and those who are in danger of being particularly affected by Covid-19.
He said the measures put in place by individuals and society to protect those groups were likely part of the reason why there was so little flu.
Dr. Henry said it was “a good story, but it didn’t happen without a considerable price tag.”
O’Connor said the hospital system had capacity, although some sites in particular had a high level of activity.
Some of this was due to the scheduled procedures that were taking place before Christmas.
He said there were 119 residents at HSE’s isolation facility at CityWest in Dublin, 49 of them were people who needed to self-isolate and 70 were healthcare workers who needed to self-quarantine.
Additional reporting Fergal O’Brien
[ad_2]