Covid-19: Record 8,248 cases confirmed as new South Africa variant identified

CUH has cancelled non-essential services as it attempts to handle hospitalised Covid-19 cases. Picture: Larry Cummins

A record 8,248 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed by the Department of Health today, the largest number of cases reported in a single day in Ireland. 

An additional 20 Covid-related deaths were reported as well today. 

The total number of cases since the outbreak began has reached 135,884 while altogether 2,327 Covid-related fatalities have been recorded. 21 previous cases of Covid-19 have been denotified by health officials.

The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has also confirmed the presence in Ireland of a new variant of the virus recently identified in South Africa. 

More than 100 people are receiving treatment in ICU. File Picture

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) from the Department of Health Dr Tony Holohan said the three cases of the variant are directly associated with recent travel from South Africa.

The CMO said any person who has recently travelled from South Africa is asked to self-isolate for 14 days and ask their GP for a test.  

“Three cases of a new variant of COVID-19 recently identified in South Africa have been confirmed in Ireland today by whole genome sequencing. All of the cases identified are directly associated with recent travel from South Africa.

“Anyone who has travelled from South Africa recently is advised to self-isolate for 14 days and identify themselves through a GP for testing as soon as possible.

We are particularly advising healthcare workers travelling from South Africa, that it is essential that they self-isolate for 14 days before entering/re-entering the workplace.

“While this variant has not yet been identified in many European countries we believe the identification here reflects the extent of genome sequencing surveillance in Ireland," said Dr Holohan. 

Dr Cillian De Gascun, Medical Virologist and Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory said preliminary analysis does not show increased severity of infection from the virus variant but that it may have increased transmissibility. 

He added there is not enough information available to say whether this variant poses a risk to the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine being administered in Ireland. 

“There is currently not enough information available to determine whether this variant poses a possible risk related to vaccine match and effectiveness. 

"The antigenic characterisation of this new variant is ongoing, and results are expected in the coming weeks,” he said. 

The number of patients receiving treatment in intensive care units (ICU) has reached 109 while 1,180 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised with the virus. 116 additional hospitalisations occurred in the past 24 hours. 19 people were admitted to ICU in the last 24 hours while four people were discharged. 58 people were discharged from hospital since yesterday. 

A breakdown of the case data released by the Department of Health shows: 

• 3,834 cases are men and 4,375 are women 
• 61% of cases are under 45 years of age 
• The median age of cases is 38 years old 
• 3,013 cases were found in Dublin, 1,374 in Cork, 538 in Limerick, 314 in Kildare and 310 in Donegal.  The remaining 2,699 cases are spread across all other counties.

The national 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population now stands at 1087.7. Co Monaghan, bordering Northern Ireland, has a 14-day incidence rate almost twice that at 2119.4. 

Louth and Donegal recorded high incidence rates too at 1839.6 and 1290.9 respectively. 

Limerick which has recently struggled with a number of clusters reported a figure of 1290.9 more than Dublin at 1288.5.

CUH cancels non-essential services

The latest case numbers come as Cork University Hospital (CUH) has cancelled all non-essential services and appointments following a surge in Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

Health officials confirmed the latest Covid-19 cases in Ireland. Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

The hospital is this afternoon caring for 114 confirmed Covid-19 positive patients - up from 105 on Thursday evening, when it had the highest number of Covid-19 patients of any Irish hospital.

The figure has risen sharply in just a few days - with a surge of 21 patients alone in the 24 hours leading up to Thursday evening.

The Irish Examiner reported today that given how rapidly the Covid-19 figures are rising nationally, CUH was poised to trigger a tiered escalation plan which was devised during the first wave of the pandemic, but which was ultimately not required last April.

It has now been activated this afternoon, with the cancellation of all scheduled care services, inpatient, medical, surgical and outpatients.