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The number of people in intensive care units will \u201chold if not grow\u201d in the coming days, the health service chief has said.<\/p>\nThe number of people in intensive care units will \u201chold if not grow\u201d in the coming days, the health service chief has said.<\/p>\n
Paul Reid said ICU admissions are a \u201creal challenge\u201d with delayed discharges from units and an increased number of deaths.<\/p>\n
He told RT\u00c9\u2019s This Week that something has changed in terms of the level of transmission and the impact of the virus.<\/p>\n
A total of 1,931 people were in hospital with the virus on Sunday afternoon including 218 in ICU.<\/p>\n
Twenty-four beds were available in intensive care but eight hospitals had reached surge capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalking to the ICU consultants I think there\u2019s a huge learning in the last three weeks about what we\u2019re seeing,\u201d Mr Reid said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing huge difference in terms of delayed exit from ICU and, sadly, increased mortality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still 430 patients who are receiving critical care outside of ICU with advanced respiratory support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Reid said a third of those patients could end up in intensive care units or die.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a very significant pipeline, unfortunately, we would see continuing into ICU. I\u2019d expect to see ICU numbers holding if not growing in the coming days,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a real challenge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the Irish National Nurses and Midwives Organization\u2019s concerns over a lack of high-grade face masks for nurses, Mr Reid said there was a \u201cgood supply\u201d of up to 1.3 million masks per week for healthcare staff who required them.<\/p>\n
He also said officials have deployed antigen testing recently to assess where there are outbreaks in hospitals, and have secured another 500,000 antigen tests. He said this will be brought into the hospital system from Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Mr Reid also said officials are \u201cvery anxious\u201d to get back to testing close contacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do aim to get back to it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe would need (cases) to be sustained below 2,000 for a few days for that to happen but we\u2019re very anxious for that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the announcement by AstraZeneca of possible delays in the production of its vaccine, Mr Reid said he believed shortfalls will be a \u201cfeature of the supply\u201d and setbacks will happen.<\/p>\n
He said the HSE is planning on rolling out the vaccine for over-70s as envisioned, having been assured by AstraZeneca that it would receive its February delivery as planned.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo our plan to commence the over-70s in the middle of February will continue,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not quite sure of the impacts beyond that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do know that in a similar way when we had the same announcement from Pfizer it had triggered very significant concerns across the EU and from the Taoiseach, and they do expect, as they\u2019ve said already, very strong conversations to happen to assess the health impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Taoiseach described the AstraZeneca production issues on Saturday as a \u201creal problem\u201d and warned it could delay the rollout of the vaccine to over-70s.<\/p>\n
On Saturday Health Minister Stephen Donnelly described the news from AstraZeneca, which has advised the EU of a reduction in vaccine supply in February and March, as a \u201creal setback\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe numbers are still tentative and AstraZeneca is due to provide more exact figures at a meeting early next week,\u201d he said. \u201cWill provide an update as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday saw a further 23 deaths and 1,378 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed by the Department of Health. All the deaths occurred this month.<\/p>\n
The median age of those who died was 84 and the age range was 61-99.<\/p>\n
It is the second day in a row since the start of the year that the number of new cases has fallen below 2,000.<\/p>\n