'Every individual needs to act as if they are infectious': Record 3,394 Covid-19 cases confirmed
Dr Tony Holohan: "Everyone needs to stay at home". Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin
The Department of Health has confirmed 3,394 cases of Covid-19 today, a new daily record for case numbers in Ireland as health authorities tackle the impact of the coronavirus’s third wave.
The new daily record comes as expected due to the pressure on Ireland’s testing and tracing system leading to a large backlog of cases building up.
With public health doctors struggling to confirm total case numbers, raw testing data shows over 4,500 testing samples have returned positive for Covid-19 today.
It is over one in five of more than 20,500 samples taken at testing centres and hospitals, but may include several swabs per patient.
Yesterday the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) warned around 9,000 cases would be reported late because of overwhelmed monitoring systems.
Speaking last night at Nphet’s briefing on Covid-19, Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the Nphet Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said: “An excess of 9,000 additional new cases will be reported over the coming days.
"The reporting delay does not affect case management or contract tracing or our overall modelling of the pandemic.”
This morning, speaking on RTÉ’s , Prof Nolan speculated that up to 6,000 cases per day could be reported at the peak of this current third wave of the virus.
The figures reported this evening include some of the more than 9,000 delayed cases mentioned by Prof Nolan at last night’s briefing.
From today's cases, 389 were reported in Cork, 355 were confirmed in Dublin, 339 were recorded in Donegal, 258 in Louth, 233 in Mayo and the remaining 1,820 cases are spread across all other counties.
A further breakdown of the case data provided by the Department of Health shows:
- 1,619 cases are men and 1,766 are women
- 65% of cases reported are under 45 years of age
- The median age of cases reported today is 35 years old
There were also 4 new deaths reported bringing the total number of Covid-related deaths in Ireland to 2,252.
Since the pandemic began, a total of 96,926 cases have been confirmed.
Speaking about the latest confirmed case figures, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) from the Department of Health, Dr Tony Holohan, said the situation is as drastic as earlier last year in March.
Dr Holohan said: "The incidence of Covid-19 is as high, if not higher now than it was in March. Every individual needs to act as if they are infectious.
"Hospitalisations are rising to levels close to what we saw in the springtime. Everyone needs to stay at home other than for essential work or care."
The CMO urged people to rediscover the solidarity displayed during the first lockdown last year and advised vulnerable and elderly people not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary.
“It is really important that vulnerable and older people do not leave their homes unless absolutely essential. This includes asking neighbours or family to carry out errands such as grocery shopping, limiting all contacts to only those people you live with or have to visit for essential care reasons.
“People particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 include older persons and people with pre-existing medical conditions including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer," Dr Holohan said.
This evening, the Department of Health released new figures for the number of people receiving treatment in hospital for Covid-19.
As of 2pm today, 607 patients have been hospitalised with the coronavirus and 56 of them are receiving treatment in ICU. 71 people were admitted to hospital for treatment in the last 24 hours.
The latest cases and deaths follow warnings from the chief executive of the HSE, Paul Reid, that the worst impact of the latest surge in Covid-19 cases on Ireland’s hospitals is yet to come.
The high levels of coronavirus cases across the country sparked warnings from health officials about the rising number of patients in hospital.
Mr Reid tweeted earlier today: “We now have 581 Covid-19 patients in hospital. There are 50 people in ICU. We have likely not seen the worst impacts yet.
“But everything we do today to stop this virus spreading makes a huge difference. Please let’s all play our part to protect our health service.”
We now have 581 #COVID19 patients in hospital. There are 50 people in ICU. We have likely not seen the worst impacts yet. But everything we do today to stop this virus spreading makes a huge difference. Please let's all play our part to protect our health service.@HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) January 2, 2021
In Cork, the intensive care unit in Cork University Hospital (CUH) is extremely busy but not yet full.
In a statement, the CUH said: “The ICU in CUH is not currently full but is extremely busy.
“Aside from emergency surgery only time-critical elective cancer surgery has been scheduled for next week.”
More than 109,000 coronavirus tests have been carried out in the last seven days, with a positivity rate of 16%.
It has also been reported that a further nine cases of the variant form of Covid-19 found in the UK have been detected in Ireland.
Meanwhile, Labour has called for an urgent public health risk assessment on whether schools can safely reopen on January 11.
The thousands of Covid-19 cases now being reported here is deeply worrying for everyone, according to Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Labour’s education spokesman.
While the decision to delay reopening schools until January 11 is “welcome” the public health risks to staff, students and the wider community needs to be assessed, he added.
“The government should also agree to abide by the public health advice given. Based on the level of disease in the community, many schools may also struggle to get sufficient staff back into schools in a weeks time.
“I do want to emphasise that schools remaining open is the preferred option once it can be done safely. It is disadvantaged students and children who suffer most from closures.
“There may be mid-way measures possible between all open and all closed that will need to be considered but the priority should be a public health risk assessment from Nphet," he said.
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