GPs: 75% of callers meet threshold for testing and likely have Covid-19 

A tracking system where GPs upload their Covid-19 tests is showing 75% of patients meet the threshold for testing and likely have the virus. Picture: Pexels

A tracking system where GPs upload their Covid-19 tests is showing 75% of patients meet the threshold for testing and likely have the virus.

This comes as public health specialists in Munster warn of working with an “avalanche of cases” in the last week.

The data tracking system, launched in March, has consistently been a predictor for the test results which follow.

Co-founder of GP Buddy Dr Darach O’ Ciardha said: “At the start of December, about 33% roughly of the callers were referred on for testing.

“Now we are at roughly 75%, so you are going from one-third of the cases being thought to be Covid to three-quarters in about a month.” 

Doctors from around Ireland upload their data to the system, which is run with the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and Trinity College, Dublin.

Excellent work
But I expect that the massive spike in C19 last week (possibly 50k confirmed cases) is a result of extended family mixing on a background of previous community seeding over 2 weeks in pubs and restaurants.
This week and next week we will see spread in households..

— William Behan 🍉 (@DrWilliamBehan) January 6, 2021

In Borrisoleigh, Tipperary, Dr Kevin Delargy said there has been an “explosion” in cases locally since Christmas.

“It has massively shot up, we were getting cases in dribs and drabs. I had maybe one or two positive cases in a week, now it is easily seven or eight a day,” he said.

The GP’s main worry and that of his colleagues is the extended family mixing which took place over Christmas. Almost all his recent Covid-positive patients told him they had met with grandparents or elderly parents over the holidays.

My fear is that it’s the young people coming to me now, they have it, but who did they pass it on to?” 

Some out-of-hours GP services took more than 150 Covid-related calls an hour at the weekend, according to the ICGP.

Public health doctors in Munster have also warned of rapidly rising positivity levels in the region.

One wrote on social media: “Incredibly busy in Cork & Kerry too. Avalanche of cases + complex outbreaks in past week. Impossible to get everything done even if we were there 24hrs/day. Trying to prioritise high risk facilities eg nursing homes, disability services, other essential congregate settings.” 

The specialist warned there was such a high level of community transmission, it was becoming harder to trace the source of outbreaks.

He said: “We are hugely reliant on the wider public limiting their movements now, keeping contacts to a minimum, and isolating if any symptoms.” 

1,373 cases of #Covid19 reported today in #Cork
30-day graph: pic.twitter.com/a34CxkbvdI

— Stephen Spillane (He/Him) 🇺🇦🌻🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@spiller2) January 6, 2021

Another specialist working in the Limerick region warned her team is now seeing cases in nursing homes again.

She wrote: 

Nursing home outbreaks are establishing themselves, with the same sickeningly familiar mortality rates. Staff shortages are already near crisis. Already staffing is day by day. They are weeks from being vaccinated. We owe them more than this.” 

This rapid increase comes as public health specialists raise serious concerns about staffing. These doctors were due to strike for better conditions later this month, but postponed due to the volume of cases they are facing.