1,758 cases reported as number of Covid patients in hospital up six-fold in six weeks

Currently, 90% of the population are partially vaccinated, while 81% are now fully vaccinated. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The number of Covid patients in hospital has increased six-fold over the past six weeks, according to the head of the HSE.

Today, 1,758 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by the Department of Health.

As of Sunday morning, there were 248 Covid patients in hospital, with 48 being treated in ICU.

Paul Reid said the HSE would be concerned about the current trends, with case numbers topping 2,000 on Saturday.

“What we have seen over the past six weeks or so is a six-fold increase in hospitalisations. Now, just to contrast that… vaccinations are working. They are reducing hospitalisations, they are reducing illness, ICU and mortality,” he told This Week on RTÉ Radio One.

“We do have the concern with the rising numbers, rising every day. And equally, we’re seeing rising case numbers across all ages and across the whole country.

He added: “There is a lag effect that we know when we reach high case numbers, a period of 10 days or so where we continue to see hospitalisations from those.” 

Almost 90,000 children aged 12 to 15-years-old registered for their Covid-19 vaccine since the portal opened on Wednesday evening, representing about one-third of the population of this age group.

Around 30,000 vaccines were administered to this cohort, as of Sunday afternoon.

Mr Reid said he anticipates the number of children in this age group registering to continue to increase in the coming days and weeks ahead.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 people per day are continuing to register on the portal across all age groups, he added.

Currently, 90% of the population are partially vaccinated, while 81% are now fully vaccinated.

Some 6.35m doses have been administered to date.