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There was a record number of new lab tests for Covid-19 in the state just before Christmas at 23,000 on Dec. 23, HSE Clinical Director Dr. Colm Henry said.
He said contact tracing had also seen a “big” increase from 9,000 cases a week to more than 30,000 a week as of Dec. 22.
“All of this shows that the virus is very active in the community and is replicating; there are multiple outbreaks and we also see the arrival of this new strain from London and South East England, which is now the dominant strain there,” he said. said.
Dr. Henry said that based on the current growth rate, “if this continues unabated without any change in the upward curve that we are seeing, we will certainly see a large number of cases that will inevitably translate into hospitalizations, unit occupancies from intensive care and, unfortunately, death. ”
He told RTE Radio’s Morning Ireland that there has been a sharp increase in admissions to acute hospitals in the past week and that for those who get sick with Covid within acute hospitals, the figures at 8pm last night were 325.
He said the flip side of the story was the sheer number of empty beds, 1,467, as of Sunday night, and a sharp decline in pushchairs compared to this time last year.
“What is happening is one of the few unexpected bonuses of this pandemic, is that we have not seen any laboratory registered cases of influenza to date this year. We have seen a sharp decline in other seasonal viruses to the extent that other non-Covid diseases do not show up in the volumes we would normally expect around the Christmas period, “he added.
Dr. Henry also defended the pace of the Covid vaccination program in the state, saying it was not a matter of speed, but of safety. It was necessary to demonstrate that the program was being implemented safely. As other vaccines are approved, the pace of the program will increase, he explained. The first vaccines will be given on Tuesday, although some other European countries began inoculations on Sunday.
Public behavior remains the main factor in controlling the spread of the virus, he said. Dr. Henry urged people to reduce the number of contacts and follow public health advice.
Another 744 Covid-19 cases and four deaths were reported to the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on Sunday, which believes the disease is circulating at a higher rate than the figures reflect.
In a statement Sunday night, the Health Department said a total of 86,129 cases have been confirmed to date in the state and 2,204 deaths related to the disease have been reported since the pandemic began.
Sunday’s numbers were considerably lower than the record 1,296 cases reported a day earlier, but medical director Dr. Tony Holohan said he believed this reflected the fact that fewer tests were conducted on Christmas Day and Saint Stephen’s day.
He said Nphet believes that “there are higher levels of disease circulating in the community than reflected in the figures reported today.”
“We therefore expect to see a large increase in reported cases in the coming days,” he added.
Of the most recent cases, 246 occurred in Dublin with 131 in Cork, 51 in Limerick, 40 in Wexford, 33 in Donegal, and the remaining 243 cases were spread across 19 counties.
“We have seen a significant increase in the number of hospitalizations in the last two weeks from less than 190 to 324 today,” said Dr. Holohan. “This indicates a deterioration in the trajectory of the disease nationwide and is a significant reminder of the severity of this disease.
“There have been further increases in key Covid-19 indicators across the country and the growth rate of the epidemic has accelerated in recent days.”
The 14-day incidence rate stands at 209.6 cases per 100,000 people nationally, with the highest rates in Donegal (425.9) and Wexford (348.6). The incidence rate in Dublin is 249.1 with the lowest levels in Leitrim (68.7) and Offaly (83.4).
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