Two-thirds of Covid-19 deaths in December were in nursing homes and hospitals - CMO

Dr Tony Holohan. File picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Two-thirds of deaths related to Covid-19 in December occurred in nursing homes and hospitals, the Chief Medical Officer has said.

In a letter dated December 28 to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, Dr Tony Holohan confirmed that as of that day there had been 101 deaths in December and of these, 33 are associated with nursing homes outbreaks and 33 are associated with hospital outbreaks.

He said the epidemiological profile of Covid-19 had continued to deteriorate very substantially since his letter of 23 December and is giving ongoing cause for “grave concern”.

He pointed to the increase in cases in hospital in the last two days – a level of increase not seen since last April.

Dr Holohan said given the overall transmission of the disease and the impact it is having on hospitalisations, as well as emerging concerns about the increased transmissibility of the UK and South African variants, he was of the view that the “current set of measures, which are less than the full suite recommended by the Nphet last Wednesday, will not be sufficient to bring the current trajectory under control.” 

The Government on foot of this letter agreed to place the country back into a full Level 5 lockdown on Thursday for a period of at least one month, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin admitting some restrictions will last longer than that.

Hospitalisations

Dr Holohan told Mr Donnelly that there were 360 confirmed Covid-19 cases in hospital; which compared with a previous peak on October 27 of 354.

He said this represented a 90% increase in the 16 days since there were 190 people in hospital on December 12.

“There were 44 new confirmed cases in hospital in the 24 hours to 8am this morning, 28 December, and this represents the second day in a row of very substantial increases (n=39 new confirmed cases on 27 December); there has not been a similar increase in new confirmed cases in hospital since April 2020,” he said.

In his stark letter, Dr Holohan said while the data he was presenting to government demonstrated “significant ongoing deterioration” in the profile of the disease, it should be noted that the actual situation is likely to be worse than what is reported.

This is because of the very substantial decrease in numbers presenting for testing on December 26 (n=2,850 results in total), the under-reporting of positive case numbers since Christmas Eve.

“It is estimated that, including today’s reported numbers, up to an additional 1,400 cases should have been reported over the past 4 days which have not yet been notified,” he said.

Dr Holohan said the overarching objective of Nphet's recommendations continues to be the protection of public health in the first instance, particularly in relation to those most vulnerable to the severe outcomes of Covid-19; to ensure the safe delivery of health services for health needs unrelated to Covid-19; to enable safe provision of childcare services and to ensure that schools could remain open.

“Given the extent to which the epidemic is now accelerating (and notwithstanding the added but currently unknowable additional risks posed by the UK and South African variants), there is a real risk that the continued protection of all of these core priorities will be jeopardised in the short term,” he warned.