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The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has reported another 13 deaths of Covid-19 patients, bringing the total number of deaths in Reublic during the pandemic to 2,608.
Nphet also reported another 2,944 confirmed cases of the disease, bringing the total number of cases in the Republic to 172,726.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that all residents of nursing homes will have received their first dose of vaccine next Sunday.
He said 140,000 doses would have been administered by the end of next week, divided 50:50 between nursing home residents and frontline workers.
Donnelly said he had asked the HSE and the government to study the possibility of obtaining supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the state before the vaccine is approved.
This would allow use of the vaccine to begin immediately after approval.
Speaking about RTÉ’s This Week program, the minister said that “every day counts” in terms of vaccinating vulnerable people, but that “there are regulatory problems” and the cooperation of the company is required to satisfy them.
He defended the vaccination of some members of the private healthcare staff after criticism that Beacon Hospital workers were being vaccinated, while front-line workers at public hospitals facing a large increase in Covid-19 cases were not.
Donnelly said there is no difference between a nurse or a doctor who works in a public or private hospital, whether they are working in “patient care” roles.
Speaking on Newstalk’s On the Record with Gavan Reilly, Donnelly called Beacon Hospital to sign the same contract that the other private hospitals had. It would be “very unfortunate” if the hospital refused to enroll.
“This is a ‘Team Ireland’ moment and while they are absolutely within their rights to protect the clinical care of their own patients, this is a moment where I think they should step up and register.”
Mass vaccination
He said the hospital had established a mass vaccination center “on its own” which the HSE had looked at favorably, and had vaccinated more than 1,000 HSE staff who would otherwise have to go to St James Hospital, who was dealing with Covid crisis.
Donnelly also told RTÉ that the rise of Covid-19 in hospitals will peak “in the next week or two” and that the number of patients in intensive care units will continue to rise.
There are 195 patients in the ICU on Sunday, up from 191 on Saturday night, and those numbers would continue to rise, he said.
The hospital system will continue “under very significant pressure for the next two weeks,” but he said a lot of work has been done since the first wave of the virus.
“The most important thing is that we have the staff,” he emphasized, adding that there was an increase capacity of 350 critical care beds, with agreements established with private hospitals for 40 or 50 beds. Sufficient ventilators were installed and “around 1,500 nurses have been trained in the ICU.”
He said that when a 14-day quarantine period was previously considered on a legal basis, it was not considered a “proportionate” response. “I’d like to see, given the UK variance and the enormous damage it’s causing, is that something we could see now?”
HSE Clinical Director Dr. Colm Henry warned Saturday that Covid-19 restrictions would be required for up to one year. Photography: Dara Mac Dónaill
When asked whether Ireland would follow Britain’s plan to quarantine hotels, Donnelly said “we can always consider” hotel quarantine.
He added that he would like to see greater compliance with the restrictions, but stressed that “the regime is a good regime.”
Negative PCR test
There has been a great tightening of travel restrictions, he noted. Anyone flying into the country will need to have a negative PCR test three days before traveling. Upon arrival, passengers must restrict their movements for 14 days unless a second test takes place after five days, but the 14 days of restrictions remain for those traveling from South Africa and Great Britain.
He said he was “really taken aback” by Labor leader Alan Kelly’s comments in the Irish Mail on Sunday about the focus on vaccines in nursing homes, which means delays in vaccinating some front-line staff. Donnelly said, “I think it needs to be explained,” adding that “more than half of the deaths in the first wave last year, 52 percent, came from those nursing homes.”
The minister also defended the controversial salary increase of 81,000 euros planned for the incoming secretary general of the Department of Health, which raises it to 292,000 euros.
He said the salary is not for any particular individual, but for the role of the secretary general. “It reflects the very significant additional workload that is the reality of being secretary general of health with a budget of 22,000 million euros.
He added: “Besides that, we are in the middle of a pandemic and we are in the middle of a very ambitious reform program that we must implement with Sláintecare and universal health care.
It was an approach used by the HSE CEO, which was successful, and for those reasons they were using it here too, he said.
Meanwhile, failures in full compliance with coronavirus rules are thwarting efforts to reduce infection rates in Ireland, the medical director warned.
Dr Tony Holohan said the reductions in infections are not happening fast enough as the virus has taken over all parts of Ireland, and said infection levels are still “too high”.
Another 60 deaths from Covid-19 were confirmed on Saturday, along with 3,231 new cases, as the rise in new cases continues after Christmas. The dramatic increase in cases has put enormous pressure on the public hospital system, which is now deploying “scalability”, including the use of beds in private hospitals.
An estimated 6,500 HSE staff members are currently ill with Covid-19 and last night’s training of nursing students and midwives was suspended for an initial two weeks so that more than 100 experienced nurses participating in the training could return. to the halls.
On Sunday, the number of Covid-19 patients in the hospital rose to 1,872, while those in intensive care units hit a new record of 195. Some 111 patients with the virus are hooked up to ventilators. The number of hospitalized patients with suspected Covid-19 dropped to 136.
The deaths and cases reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) bring the total number of deaths from Covid-19 to 2,595 and to 169,780 the number of cases in the Republic since the start of the pandemic.
Dr. Colm Henry, HSE clinical director, said in radio comments that social distancing and restrictions in some form were likely for the remainder of 2021 at least, until a sufficient number of the population can be vaccinated to grant general or collective immunity.
Medical director Dr. Tony Holohan said Saturday that while increases appear to have stalled, infection levels remain “too high.” Photography: Collins
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said there would have to be a significant reduction in the number of new cases and patients in the ICU before a loosening of the restrictions can be considered, including that those in ICU with Covid were reduced to about 50 patients.
‘Stay at home’
Virologist Dr. Cillian De Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, highlighted the threat posed by the new variant of Covid. “Stay home. Do not visit anyone else’s home. Do not attend illegal gatherings. Remember the simple and effective measures of spring: wash your hands well and often, wear a mask, cough and sneeze into your elbow, keep two meters away from others and call your GP at the first sign of Covid-19 symptoms. “
The deaths of another 22 people with coronavirus were recorded in Northern Ireland on Saturday. The death toll collected by the region’s Health Department now stands at 1,581.
On Saturday, the department also confirmed another 705 cases of the virus.
Northern Ireland is currently in the midst of a strict six-week lockdown, with people legally forced to stay home and can only venture out in a limited number of permitted circumstances.
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