Hospitals could see 2,500 Covid cases as record set for third day

There are 1,151 people with the virus in Irish hospitals with 104 admitted in the last 24 hours.

There are a record number of Covid-19 patients being treated in hospitals for the third day in a row.

This morning, there are 1,151 people with the virus in Irish hospitals with 104 admitted in the last 24 hours.

It is a 12% increase on yesterday's total and is a rise of 126% on last Friday.

The figure includes 101 people in ICU which is the first time the number has risen above 100 since April.

In the past 24 hours, 18 people with Covid-19 have been admitted to ICU.

Anne O'Connor from the HSE said hospitals are coping but only because non-Covid care has been scaled back.

"In the last surge we had a peak of about 160 in ICU and we could well exceed that this time around.

"We don't want it to go higher but it probably will and I think that the actions that people are taking now is what will have a key impact on that.

So everything that we can do now will help to reduce those numbers.

Ms O'Connor said once case numbers begin to fall, it will take some time for the impact to be felt in hospitals.

"It takes some time for that number to translate into people coming into hospitals and more time again for that number to translate into numbers in ICU.

"We are looking at this over the next couple of weeks as still being a very big number.

"We are working on the basis that we will eventually see 2,500 people in hospital and 300 or 400 in ICUs.

"Hopefully, depending on the actions that everyone takes, it won't come to that."

Meanwhile, six areas of the country have recorded 14-day incidence rates of Covid-19 of over 1,500 per 100,000 people.

That means about one in every 66 people in these regions had the virus in the two-week period that ended on Monday.

They are local electoral areas in Donegal, Mayo, Monaghan, Dundalk and Limerick.

Dr Denis McCauley, from Donegal, says GPs have had fewer presentations in the past few days, but it is still at crisis-point.

"In our own practice, we have been monitoring the amount of positive cases and last week and this week they had gone up by a factor of three.

"There is an extraordinary increase so even if there is a stabilisation, it is a stabilisation at a very high level.

"I must emphasise it is positive only from being a very chaotic and potentially serious condition to a serious condition."