Almost 50 Covid-19 deaths recorded since Monday

Chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, and president of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, Dr Colman O’Loughlin, both said that adhering to public health measures is still the only way to protect ourselves pending the rollout of vaccines.

Almost 50 Covid-19 related deaths have occurred in Ireland since Monday, it emerged tonight as another 1,013 cases of the disease were confirmed.

The figures were reported amid new warnings about “challenging new patterns” in the disease which are leading to patients spending longer in hospital and with those who survive suffering more severe degrees of lung damage.

Chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, and president of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland, Dr Colman O’Loughlin, both said that adhering to public health measures is still the only way to protect ourselves pending the rollout of vaccines.

Their warnings came as the Department of Health said that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) had been notified of 94 additional deaths related to Covid-19 — half of them since last Monday. 

A breakdown of the figures shows that 47 deaths occurred in February, 44 in January, two in December, and one in November.

The deceased ranged in age from 36 to 100, with the median age of those who died at 82.

Their deaths brought to 3,512 the total number of Covid-19-related deaths in Ireland.

And as of midnight on Tuesday, the HPSC was notified of 1,013 new confirmed cases of Covid-19, with 337 in Dublin, 96 in Galway, 65 in Cork, 60 in Kildare, 48 in Louth, and the remaining 407 cases spread across all other counties.

A breakdown shows that 465 are men, 543 are women, and 56% are under the age of 45.

As of 2pm today, 1,334 Covid-19 patients were in hospital, with 203 in ICU and 66 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Holohan said: “At the outset of this pandemic, as a global community we knew much less about Covid-19 than we do now. 

"We did not know then that today we would have a portfolio of approved vaccines to mitigate the worst effects of Covid-19, adding to our toolkit of public health measures such as social distancing, reducing contacts, mask-wearing, cough/sneeze hygiene, and washing our hands.

“Now more than ever, as we are continuing to see the tragic effects of the recent surge of Covid-19 infection in the form of mortality, hospitalisation, and ICU admission, we should remember the public health advice that has carried us so far in this pandemic, and helped us to suppress Covid-19 together successfully in the past.

“It is the collective hard work and ongoing sacrifice of people across Ireland in following these public health measures that will keep us all safe at this time, as we look ahead to the increased rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine on the horizon. 

"Keep it up, and encourage others to do the same. In short: The present is the time to protect yourself and stay safe, in order to receive your vaccine in the future.”

Earlier, in an interview with Morning Ireland, Dr O'Loughlin said the increase in cases following Christmas had caused severe stress for the hospital system.

He said Covid-19 was “a preventable disease” and if everyone had “held the line”, the numbers would be far less.

Examining what had happened over Christmas was for the future, but it could not be allowed to happen again, he warned.

He said there was now a pattern of sicker patients coming into ICU and staying longer. 

The average length of stay in the last wave had been 10 to 14 days, but it was longer this time, and the degree of lung injury was more severe, he said.

And while Dr O'Loughlin said it was a different pattern of disease and far more challenging, data is not yet available to tell if new variants of the virus were responsible for this increased severity of illness.