'Covid-19 patients deteriorate very quickly, they die very quickly', says nurse manager

Clinical nurse manager Bernie Waterhouse spoke movingly of her 10 months so far working on a Covid-19 ward at St James Hospital. 'It can be stressful for our staff when we have a couple of people who die on the same day.' Picture: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

There are now 211 patients in ICU with Covid-19, the HSE said today, and they warned we could see more than 500 deaths for January alone.

About half of the ICU patients are ventilated, and there are an additional 300 patients receiving high-dependency respiratory support on ordinary wards.