Ireland provides for another 9,000 Covid cases to be added to the official count as the system struggles to cope with an increase in positive results, and health officials warn hospitals cannot cope if the trend continues.
The sharp rise in positive results has led to delays in formal reporting, said Professor Philip Nolan of the National Emergency Team for Public Health (NPHET), although he said it did not affect business management or contact tracing or our overall monitoring and modeling of the pandemic. ”.
On Thursday, NPHET estimated that the number of positive tests not yet registered is 4,000, more than doubling to 9,000 the next day.
On Friday, Ireland formally reported a daily record of 1,754 confirmed cases, surpassing more than 1,500 daily cases for the fourth day in a row.
The chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, said the biggest concern was the rapid increase in hospitalizations. ‘We are now increasing between 50 and 70 people a day in our hospital system. Unfortunately, we expect it to get worse before it gets better. Our health care system will not continue to deal with this impact. ”
‘We have also seen a significant increase in positive laboratory tests over the past few days, reflecting a real increase in the incidence of the disease, as well as the delay in people coming for testing during the Christmas period. As our systems catch up with these effects, it puts significant pressure on our reporting system. ”
On New Year’s Eve, Ireland entered a level five exclusion, with non-essential shops closed, a 5km travel limit, restrictions on domestic gatherings and schools remaining closed.
Paul Reid, CEO of the Health Service Executive (HSE), told RTÉ Radio 1: ‘The virus is now absolutely rampant in the community. Everyone is at the greatest risk of contracting the virus. ”
The health system is not built to handle a pandemic and can ‘handle’ the number of tests not performed, he said. Symptomatic cases are now being prioritized as the demand for tests increases.
“The real picture of the past few days is probably almost 3,000 cases a day, and that’s the extent of the virus we’re dealing with,” he said. “When we get to these levels, it has a serious impact on a whole range of areas, not just our systems, the health service and the volume that any system can handle.”
Colm Henry, the clinical head of the HSE, encouraged everyone to treat others as if they had the virus, as its prevalence has increased exponentially. “We know the virus is out of control,” he said.
Ireland had the lowest infection rate in the European Union just two weeks ago after the fastest decline, after shops and large parts of the hospitality sector were re-admitted for most of December.
The 14-day prevalence per 100,000 inhabitants in Ireland went from 87 at the beginning of December to 321.3 at the end of the month, according to RTE. The death toll now stands at 2,248 with a total of 93,532 confirmed cases.
Stricter Covid test measures will replace a ban on UK travelers from Wednesday, with passengers having to show a negative test result over the past three days in an effort to limit the spread of a more transmissible variant of the virus, has Foreign Minister Simon. Coveney said.