Covid-19: Concern as five deaths and 456 new cases confirmed

Covid-19: Concern as five deaths and 456 new cases confirmed

Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, said he is worried about the direction we are now heading.

There has been five additional death related to Covid-19, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).

All of the deaths reported today occurred in November. So far this month, there have been 52 Covid-related deaths.

The death toll in the Republic now stands at 1,984.

The HPSC has been notified of 456 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

Dublin continues to account for the highest number of cases with 105 followed by Limerick with 85 cases, Cork with 43, Meath with 38 and Clare with 25.

The rest of the cases are spread out across 21 other counties.

As of 2pm this afternoon, there are 274 people with Covid-19 being treated in hospital with 33 in ICU.

There have been 10 hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 now stands at 120.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, said he is worried about the direction we are now heading.

"Unfortunately, the very positive trajectory that we had been reporting in recent weeks has, at best, stalled and according to a number of indicators is now deteriorating."

Public health officials want to see daily case numbers below 100 by December 1.

"We really have a short period of time in which to turn this around. We have two weeks to go before December 1."

Dr Glynn said that the public cannot unduly focus on Christmas.

If we keep focusing on three and four and five weeks time, we take our eye off what we need to be doing today.

"It is hard enough for people to do what needs to be done today as well as having to worry or be concerned about what might happen in four or five weeks time.

"I am fully aware of what's coming. We all want to enjoy a good Christmas."

In the North today, the Department of Health said a further 14 people with Covid-19 have died.

The death toll recorded by the department now stands at 869.

There were also another 331 confirmed cases of the virus recorded in the region.

News today of a second Covid-19 vaccine reporting results exceeding expectations has been welcomed around the world.

Moderna Inc MRNA.O said on Monday its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing Covid-19 based on interim data from a late-stage clinical trial, becoming the second U.S. company in a week to report results that far exceed expectations.

Dr Piotr Kowalski, a special lecturer in advanced therapies at University College Cork's School of Pharmacy, said so far the vaccine from Moderna as well as the previously announced vaccine from Pfizer look very promising.

"Traditional vaccines utilize the inactivated virus or antigen protein itself, manufactured in a cell-based process that takes months to set up and run. With mRNA vaccines, the patient’s own body becomes the antigen factory."

"The speed with which mRNA vaccine candidates can be designed and produced is a key advantage of this new vaccine technology, for Moderna, it took a total of 25 days from sequence selection to vaccine manufacture."

Infectious diseases specialist at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee, Professor Karina Butler said today was "an extraordinary day".

When asked if this was rushed, Prof Butler said: “Is it too soon? Well, there are very large numbers involved when you combine both studies, most, not all, but most side effects are found within six weeks,” she told RTÉ radio’s News at One.

Those who need it and are least likely to have an adverse effect would be a priority as would health care workers, she said.

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