'We cannot afford to drop our guard now': Five deaths and 227 Covid-19 cases confirmed

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan said: “Covid-19 is still an extremely infectious disease which has the potential to lead to hospitalisation and even ICU admissions.

There have been five further deaths related to Covid-19, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has said.

This brings the death toll in Ireland to 2,102.

The HPSC has been notified of 227 confirmed cases of the virus. There is now a total of 74,900 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland following the denotification of nine cases.

As of 2pm this afternoon, there are 224 Covid-19 patients in hospital with 38 of these in ICU.

There have been 14 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan said: “Today we have seen eight new admissions to ICU, the most in a 24-hour period since the spring time.” 

“Covid-19 is still an extremely infectious disease which has the potential to lead to hospitalisation and even ICU admissions.

“Ireland has managed to suppress Covid-19 to the lowest incidence levels in the EU in recent weeks.

"We have managed to keep up our safe behaviours and worked to protect each other throughout the pandemic.

If we do not continue to suppress the disease through the actions we have learned over recent months, we will very quickly see a surge in infections leading to an increase in hospitalisations, ICU admissions and, tragically, deaths.

“We are actively planning to begin vaccinating people in early 2021. We cannot afford to drop our guard now.” 

Of the 224 cases notified today, the majority are in Dublin with 70 cases located in the capital followed by 26 in Donegal, 19 in Limerick and 14 in both Louth and Kilkenny.

The national 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 has dropped slightly to 79.5.

Donegal continues to have the highest incidence levels with a rate of 226.8 per 100,000.

Six other counties have a 14-day incidence rate of above 100 - Kilkenny (191.5), Louth (153.6), Limerick (135.5), Monaghan (123.8), Carlow (121.2) and Wicklow (114.4).

Dublin which accounted for the largest number of cases today currently has a 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 of 93.9.

There was a slight increase in the number of new clusters of Covid-19 in the last week.

New data released by the HPSC found there were 352 new clusters, up from 348 the previous week.

Of these clusters, 288 were in household settings which is 26 more than last week.

Schools accounted for 14 outbreaks while the number of clusters in hospitals, nursing homes and workplaces saw small drops.

Earlier today, the Tánaiste warned that a spike in Covid-19 cases is "inevitable" as people mix over the Christmas holidays.

Referring to a rise in coronavirus cases following gatherings in the US and Canada for Thanksgiving, Mr Varadkar said it gives an indication on how the virus will spread over the festive holidays.

“It is likely that cases will rise again and we have never ruled out the possibility that we will reintroduce restrictions for a short period in January,” he added.

Mr Varadkar said if further restrictions are introduced in January it “won’t be done lightly”.

Meanwhile in the North, a further 12 patients with Covid-19 have died.

Seven of these deaths took place in the past 24 hours.

The Department of Health said another 483 people have tested positive for the coronavirus.

There are 425 patients in hospital with the virus in the North with 31 of them in intensive care.