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There is growing concern about the number of Covid-19 cases in the community and the rising hospital admissions, the head of the HSE has said.<\/p>\nThere is growing concern about the number of Covid-19 cases in the community and the rising hospital admissions, the head of the HSE has said.<\/p>\n
Paul Reid said there has been a slight increase in the number of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus this weekend.<\/p>\n
There are currently 360 patients in hospitals on Sunday, a rise of 32 patients in 24 hours.<\/p>\n
The 14-day incidence rate has been at 150 per 100,000 of the population for around a week.<\/p>\n
Mr Reid told Newstalk On The Record program that hospital numbers have been \u201cstuck\u201d over recent weeks and the number of patients with Covid-19 is the same as the peak in the second wave.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at no way normal levels in our hospitals,\u201d Mr Reid added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the last week when we saw the numbers stuck for the past few weeks, they had come down for the past five or six weeks very well.<\/p>\n
\u201cA slight increase again this weekend would give us concern around trends, particularly in line with some of the cases we\u2019re seeing come through this weekend, a slight rise in cases would give us concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he can sense the public\u2019s \u201cfrustration and anger\u201d in recent days.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we can do is tell the facts of where things are at the minute and you would be concerned with what you see happening across Europe,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the HSE\u2019s perspective, we still see a very high positivity rate.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that a close contact of a positive case has a 25 per cent likelihood of becoming infected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the transmission levels, particularly of this B117 variant, are still very strong and the positivity rate is still very high,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important that everyone protects themselves and hold their guard.\u201d<\/p>\n
GPs have also reported a rise in referrals for Covid-19 tests.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, HSE chief clinical officer Colm Henry said they are confident the 30,000 people who missed the AstraZeneca vaccine last week will be covered over the next seven to ten days.<\/p>\n
The use of AstraZeneca in Ireland was paused last Sunday following reports of unusual blood clots in Norway.<\/p>\n
It resumed on Saturday following the green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Ireland\u2019s National Immunization Advisory Committee (Niac).<\/p>\n
Mr Henry also raised concerns about the \u201cdefinite stagnation\u201d in the number of Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing a stubbornly high level of new cases identified every day, in the order of 500 or 600 cases,\u201d he told RT\u00c9 News at One.<\/p>\n
He also said the 14-day incidence rate is stagnated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat famous R value, the accumulative measurement of all individual interactions we all have, is stuck on 1, which means that the disease is stable or increasing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are other signals of concern which sometimes anticipate deteriorations in some of these numbers, and one of those is an increase of referrals for GP testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother is close contact \u2013 very high positivity percentage of 24 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of illness out there, it hasn\u2019t gone away and it\u2019s much higher than what it was in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as we see that illness it will convert to hospital admissions.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Saturday, a further nine deaths of people with Covid-19 were recorded.<\/p>\n
Seven of the deaths occurred in March, and two occurred in February.<\/p>\n
Another 525 cases were also notified by the Department of Health.<\/p>\n