NPHET recommends changing the Covid trial period

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The National Public Health Emergency Team has recommended that the Health Service Executive resume testing twice on all close contacts of a confirmed case, on day zero and on day ten after their last exposure to the case, “as soon how the ability to rub, test and trace contacts can facilitate this development. “

In his latest letter to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, dated February 4 and published today, Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan said that NPHET recommended that for the general population, close contacts can end their period of movements. restricted on receiving an “not detected” message resulting from a test performed on day ten from the last exposure, provided they remain symptom-free.

On January 29, the Health Service Executive resumed close contact testing of confirmed cases, having suspended these tests at the end of December, due to unsustainable pressure on the testing system due to the increase in cases.

According to the resumption of testing, the close contact test was conducted on day five, with close contacts required to restrict his movements for 14 days, regardless of whether his test said “not detected.”

Latest coronavirus stories

The latest figures from the Health Service Executive show that around 1,000 first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine are administered per day.

According to data published today, 153,654 first doses of the vaccine were administered as of Sunday.

The total of first doses the day before was 152,652.

The figures also show that 86,833 second doses have been administered, an increase of 2,489 from the previous day.

The total number of doses administered as of Sunday is 240,487.

The vast majority of vaccines given here are Pfizer-BioNTech and of the around 4,000 Moderna vaccines that arrived last month, 1,893 have been given, with the remainder being held for the second dose.

The number of Covid-19 patients in the hospital has risen slightly to 1,032, compared to 1,012 last night.

There are currently 173 Covid-19 patients in hospitals, the latest figures show.

St James’s Hospital in Dublin treats 95 patients with Covid-19, the highest number of all hospitals in the country.

In other parts of the capital, Mater Hospital in Dublin has 91 patients, while Connolly has 72.

Last night, the Department of Health reported that 68 more people had died from Covid-19, with 566 new cases of the virus.

In total, there have been 3,752 Covid-19-related deaths in Ireland and 204,940 confirmed cases.

Ireland needs to be better prepared for the next potential wave

An infectious disease consultant at St James Hospital in Dublin has said that significant investment is needed in Ireland’s public health system to prevent another wave of Covid-19.

Dr Clíona Ní Cheallaigh said the arrival of new variants of the virus requires Ireland to be better prepared for a possible next wave.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, she said she has seen no evidence that measures are being put in place that could prevent another lockdown, should cases of the virus rise again.

“We cannot go through this again, I think that everyone is suffering and I do not see the measures that will be necessary to prevent us from ending up in this situation again.”

“Yes, a careful reopening is sensible, but you need to use the time you are locked up to put additional measures in place,” he said.

Dr Ní Cheallaigh said that other Covid-19 variants are likely already in Ireland but have yet to be detected and cautioned that relying on a variant to be accidentally detected may mean that it is too late to contain it.

“We are relying on it being accidentally picked up and we know with Covid that that just doesn’t work, and unfortunately, by the time something realizes there is a new variant here, it is too late to contain it.”

The Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory has said that while Ireland’s 14-day incidence rate is declining, it is still more than 100 times higher than during the summer.

Dr. Cillian de Gascun said that “we are working with good margins” and there is still pressure on the hospital system.

Speaking about the same program, he said that Covid-19 has not been around long enough to be considered seasonal and that people should be extremely cautious.

Dr. De Gascun said that whole genome sequencing has been in place since the beginning of the pandemic and that more than 1% of viruses are sequenced, but the NVRL would like to sequence between 5 and 10%.

He said that implementing the vaccine program should be a priority and said he would expect people to need an annual booster shot to cope with any changes in the virus.

Meanwhile, speaking at a press conference this morning, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Taoiseach urged people not to take non-essential travel.

Liz Canavan said the number of Irish returning from vacations abroad “is a very worrying statistic” and, while people would love and need a vacation, “now is not the time to travel.”



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