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Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that no one anticipated that Covid-19 cases would rise at the rate seen in recent days.
Mr. Varadkar told Newstalk’s On The Record program that the state’s recent six-week shutdown “did not work out to the extent we expected” and health authorities did not expect “the numbers to increase so rapidly” after they relaxed The restrictions.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) reported 1,296 cases of Covid-19 on December 26, the highest number in a single day since the pandemic began. Before this week, the daily figure had not exceeded 1,000 since October 25. There were six related deaths yesterday, bringing the total to 2,200.
HSE Executive Director Paul Reid acknowledged on Sunday that the number of Covid-19 cases had reached “alarming levels.”
He said that about 23,000 tests were completed in one due to increased demand and that the positivity levels were reaching 10 percent within a few days.
Emerging Contacts
Mr. Reid also expressed concern about the number of contacts people had, saying the average had risen from about 2.5 to more than five per confirmed case, with 10 or 15 contacts in some cases.
Demand for the contact tracing service had increased as there were more confirmed cases and people infected with the disease had met with more people, he said.
He said the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 had risen “quite significantly” to 320, up from 255 on Christmas Eve. However, the number of people in intensive care with the virus remains manageable at 22.
When asked if hospitals could cope during the generally busy period after Christmas, Reid said the healthcare system was in a “much stronger position” than in previous years, with about 82% fewer people in carts. .
“We are going to enter with more force but it is also very volatile,” he warned.
Retail
On the decision to allow non-essential retail establishments to remain open, the Tánaiste said that if Nphet cautions that “closing non-essential retail would only make a small difference in cases, then you have to ask yourself if it’s worth all the other consequences and assume Keep in mind that any restriction that we have now will be there for a prolonged period, now we have the vaccine ”.
“If a critical mass of people gets the vaccine, you will see the death rate drop in the first place because if you vaccinate people at the highest risk of getting sick or dying, then you will see the death rate and incidence rate go down.” .
However, he did not see meetings of 50 or more being held again “until the summer.
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