Covid-19: 'The virus does not know it's Christmas', warns HSE infections chief 

Professor Martin Cormican, HSE national clinical lead antimicrobial resistance and infection control, advised people to meet outdoors and to only meet people they trusted indoors. Picture: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

The virus does not know it is Christmas was the stark warning issued at the HSE briefing on Thursday, as the authorities look ahead to a possible January surge in cases.

The key message from all the speakers was that each household must try to keep their contacts as low as possible in the weeks coming up to Christmas and indeed over the holiday period itself.

HSE head Paul Reid said: “The next couple of weeks will have a determining effect for January.” The HSE is monitoring the steady rise in positive cases and the rise in positivity.

Staff in the hospital sector have expressed concerns that if the usual surge in patients comes in the first week of January, that additional Covid patients could overwhelm the system.

The HSE has created an online contact calculator which allows people to keep track of who they meet over any 14-day period. This is available on their website.

HSE national clinical lead for antimicrobial resistance and infection control Professor Martin Cormican said: “The virus doesn’t know it’s Christmas. 

If you are taking risks this weekend and going to see people next weekend then you are putting them at risk.” 

He strongly advised people to meet outdoors and to only meet people they trusted for any length of time indoors, and he stressed this applies on Christmas Day also.

 Are you happy to spend Christmas alone? If that is what people want to do then you should respect that.” 

The exact arrival date of the first batch of vaccine from Pfizer/BioNtech is not yet known, but so far that is set at 5,000 doses.

Mr Reid said the HSE has requested this be increased but it may not be possible under the terms of the EU arrangements. He said he would prefer 10,000.

He confirmed to the Irish Examiner that retired medical staff would be contacted as part of setting up the vaccine delivery team. This could include medical doctors and nurses who have already been working with the HSE since the pandemic hit in March.

Attendances at emergency departments around the country have increased from last week but are still almost 60% lower than this time last year, according to the HSE’s Anne O’Connor.

Greater support for community services has seen delays in transferring well patients to respite care or home with support, she said. Just over 1,500 patients were transferred since the start of October. And 178 community beds are now open.

Numbers of people on waiting lists for community support services are still high but have dropped to 2,385 from over 7,000 in February, shortly before the pandemic.

As pressures look likely to increase on the acute hospital system, the HSE has released an extra 256 acute beds nationally as part of the winter plan.

Numbers of people contacting GPs for Covid testing remains high, at 290,864 telephone consults linked to the virus over the past eight weeks. And respiratory clinics run by GPs have treated 29,270 patients in that time.

There are currently 34 outbreaks in nursing homes, and the fifth round of testing among staff showed a positivity rate of just 0.33%. Five HSE hospitals have had Covid-19 outbreaks among their staff this week, including Waterford University Hospital.