Almost 40k Covid cases logged over the weekend with 1,624 now in hospital

As of this morning, there are 1,624 people in hospital with Covid-19, while 54 patients are in intensive care units with the disease around the country

A further 39,561 cases of Covid-19 have been reported since Friday, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HSPC) has confirmed.

On Monday, 5,263 cases of the disease were confirmed by PCR testing, while 6,466 people registered a positive antigen test on Sunday through the HSE portal.

Saturday saw the highest numbers with 7,754 PCR-confirmed cases, with 7,706 positive antigen tests registered from the previous day.

On Sunday, the HSPC was notified of 6,940 positive PCR tests, and a further 5,432 antigen tests were registered from the day before.

As of this morning, there are 1,624 people in hospital with Covid-19, while 54 patients are in intensive care units with the disease around the country.

The total number of patients with Covid-19 in hospital is the highest it has been since January 2021.

Increased Covid cases causing huge stress for health system, says HSE chief

HSE chief executive Paul Reid says it is important to "turn the tide again" and do the basics like wearing a mask and isolating if you have symptoms.

Virologist Dr Gerald Barry has warned that protective measures such as mask-wearing and better ventilation and air filtration need to be reintroduced to combat the growing number of Covid cases.

The head of the HSE says the number of Covid patients in hospital is causing huge stress for the health system.

There are 1,625 people with the virus being treated in hospital - up more than 300 from this time last week.

HSE chief executive Paul Reid says it is important to "turn the tide again" and do the basics like wearing a mask and isolating if you have symptoms.

Dr Gerald Barry said preparations had to be made to face the new waves of variants to come.

“These new waves are reality,” he said. It was not a situation where society could “just sit back” and allow repeated waves of the virus to “wash over us.”

Mask-wearing and better ventilation and air filtration need to be reintroduced to combat the growing number of Covid cases says leading virologist  Dr. Gerald Barry.

 Dr Barry said that the current variant BA2 was the most infectious virus he had ever seen and the easing of restrictions had created an environment that had allowed it to spread.

In the past people experienced a severe flu once or twice in their lifetime, there was now a very real possibility that Covid could become a regular event “once a year”.

Thankfully because of vaccination most people would not end up in hospital, but this was not a ‘normality’ in which people wanted to live.

Different variant with every wave

The virus was changing all the time, there was a different variant with every wave.

A new variant could continue to develop for the next few years, particularly in winter time, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

“We have to prepare for the new waves to come.” 

Dr Barry called for the reintroduction of protective measures such as mandatory mask-wearing, better ventilation and air filtration systems in indoor settings.

It is still unknown what the long-term impact of being exposed to the virus would be, he added.

Just one emergency department in Ireland is fit for purpose, says consultant 

Emergency medicine consultant Dr Fergal Hickey has warned that the elastic band has snapped with regard to the pressure on emergency departments.

The situation was the worst he had ever experienced, he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.

Dr Hickey also warned that the situation would repeat itself unless there was a change to the model of the health service.

There was only one emergency department in the country that could be considered fit for purpose, he added.

Multi-patient wards, some of which dated back to the last century and beyond, were not appropriate.

Dr Hickey added that he did not get a sense that there was a willingness to address the deficiencies in the system.

There was a feeling that the situation would resolve itself, but he warned that staff would leave and go to work in other countries where there were not the same problems and pressures.

That will be detrimental for the Irish public health system in the long run, he said.

Dr Hickey said there was no doubt that masks offered protection and the public was starting to understand that.

He had noticed more people wearing masks in supermarkets. Mask wearing was very important in any congregated setting.

It was very important to reiterate that public advice, he said.