Growth rate of Covid-19 in Ireland has 'accelerated' as 1,627 new cases recorded

Dr Ronan Glynn's comments come as a further 1,627 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. Picture: Paddy Cummins /Collins Dublin

The deputy chief medical officer has said that the growth rate of Covid-19 in Ireland has accelerated in recent days, with an increase in incidence in all age groups.

On average, 50 people are being admitted to the hospital every day, up from 35 at the end of September. Five patients per day are being admitted to intensive care units.

Dr Ronan Glynn's comments come as a further 1,627 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

There are 415 people being treated in hospital, this is up seven on yesterday's figure.

Of these, there are 70 people being treated in ICU, an increase of one.

The national incidence rate is now 415 per 100,000 population.

Dr Glynn says while anyone who is fully vaccinated will have very good protection from Covid-19 when the incidence of the disease is high there will be breakthrough infections in vaccinated people.

"Most people’s experience of infection will be mild, but some will end up in hospital and intensive care," he said. "We want to avoid that."

“Please continue to protect yourself by adhering to the public health advice.

"This will stop the spread and drive down the incidence of Covid-19 in our communities."

Meanwhile, the EU Digital Covid Cert will be extended to Irish passport holders, aged 18 and over, living in Britain from tomorrow, a service that was already introduced to holders in Northern Ireland two weeks ago.

Applicants will need to have a valid Irish passport and a vaccination certificate, including a valid QR code, for a vaccine-type currently authorised in Ireland including:

• Pfizer-BioNTech 
• Moderna 
• Oxford-AstraZeneca 
• Johnson & Johnson/Janssen 

Commenting on the news, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said: "The Third Country portal is being made available to Irish passport holders on a phased basis, and with 8,000 certificates already issued to those vaccinated in Northern Ireland, this service will support the free and safe travel for Irish passport holders within the EU.”

The service will be accessible at covidcertificateportal.gov.ie.

No discussion has been had on reintroduction of Covid restrictions

Earlier, the health minister has said there has "never been any discussion" around reintroducing covid measures, despite the rise in cases and hospitalisations.

Stephen Donnelly said the Government is going to wait to see what the public health experts say on Monday before making any decision on whether to lift the remaining Covid restrictions.

Stephen Donnelly said the Government is going to wait to see what the public health experts say on Monday before making any decision on whether to lift the remaining Covid restrictions. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

“The country has made incredible progress and a good deal of credit of that goes to the vaccination programme, to the fact that so many people have taken up vaccines and the incredible people that rolled it out,” he said.

“In spite of that… over the last 10 days or so, we’ve seen them [cases] increase. We’ve seen testing increase, we’ve seen the positivity rate increase and we’ve seen the total number of tests increase. It’s right across the country.” 

However, he added: "With regards to restrictions being reintroduced, I can't pre-empt the public health advice but I would say there has never been any consideration to going backwards.

"That is a matter of Government, it's a matter for the advice we get from Nphet and the public health experts, but there has certainly never been any discussion around reintroducing measures."

Minister Donnelly said they are seeing the rise in areas, such as Kerry, which had very low levels for a very long time and is now dealing with a serious prevalence.

Waterford, which has the highest vaccine rate in Ireland, is dealing with a very serious case incidence at the moment, he added.

“We’ll know a lot more on Monday, particularly about if it is a short term increase or is it the start of a trend.” 

Asked why case numbers were so high when vaccination levels were also high, Minister Donnelly said he had been advised that there were two reasons driving the trend.

“Part of it is proximity to the UK, where the cases have been consistently high and where we have an awful lot of movement between the Republic and the UK,” he said.

“And part of it, I’m advised, is to do with the starting point. We got hit with the Delta variant than most of mainland Europe and the analysis from around Europe is suggesting that given the virulence of this particular strain, that it’s very difficult to bring the cases down.” 

He appealed to the unvaccinated individuals to get the jab, as part of the “national effort”.