Up to 225 nursing homes battling Covid-19 outbreaks
The HSE has urged people to continue coming forward for vaccination, with over 80% of the population now boosted. File photo
Nursing homes continue to be adversely affected by Covid-19, with a total of 225 homes around the country currently battling outbreaks, Minister of State Mary Butler has told the DĂĄil.
While the number of new Covid-19 outbreaks fell to 109 last week, almost half of these occurred in nursing homes and other centres for vulnerable people. Ms Butler said outbreaks are currently being experienced in over 40% of nursing homes
Nursing homes accounted for 30 new outbreaks, and other residential centres for 22, according to the latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC). Nine of these new outbreaks were in the south and southeast regions.
The HPSC data shows while cases are declining in residential settings including disability units, there are still 209 open outbreaks in this sector alone.
The number of new outbreaks in schools dropped slightly from 18 to 17, while there was just one new outbreak in a creche, down from four the week earlier.
Overall, since the end of June, schools have been linked to 553 outbreaks, second only to family homes with 965 outbreaks. Creches have been linked to 251 outbreaks. Hospitals also continue to see new outbreaks, with 19 discovered in the last week alone, with up to 17 people affected each time.
Hospitals that have passed the peak of the Omicron surge are now lifting visitor restrictions, including University Maternity Hospital Limerick which restored 8am-9pm access on Tuesday.
Up to Thursday, the overall positivity rate for Covid-19 remains extremely high at 30.4% based just on PCR test results, the Department of Health has found. More than 117,000 PCR tests were administered in the last week between community swabbing centres and hospitals.
However, high case numbers are not leading to an increase in hospital admissions or severe illness, with numbers in ICU falling from 97 in mid-January to 63 at present.
There are currently 610 Covid-patients in hospitals overall, down from the peak of 1,063 on January 10. The HSE has urged people to continue coming forward for vaccination, with over 80% of the population now boosted.
