Senior HSE officer urges public to get vaccinated as winter infections continue to rise

CCO Dr Colm Henry said: 'We saw a 92% increase in people with flu and a 77% increase in people with covid-19 attending EDs in the first week of 2024 compared to the week before.' Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Irish emergency departments saw a sharp increase in people sick with flu and covid-19 in the first week of January, the HSE chief clinical officer has warned.

The rising numbers of patients are putting pressure on space, with the number of patients on trolleys without a bed also rising in recent days.

Dr Colm Henry said: “We saw a 92% increase in people with flu and a 77% increase in people with covid-19 attending EDs in the first week of 2024 compared to the week before.”

He called on the public to get vaccinated to protect themselves and others, and posted on X, formerly Twitter, that contact with vulnerable people should be avoided by anyone with respiratory symptoms.

Professor Ivan Perry, former head of the school of public health in University College Cork, said the surge in infection is “a triple epidemic” with flu, covid-19, and RSV cases also still high.

“We get the flu and surge in colds and other respiratory infections every winter, so covid is an extra layer,” he said. “This shows the value of people keeping up their vaccinations for both covid and flu.”

Referring to HSE data showing a low uptake of vaccines this winter, he said:

“It just makes no sense, particularly for people over-50 not to get vaccinated against flu and covid.”

He also said while he understands people are reluctant to wear masks again, these offer protection to vulnerable groups. “People should use their own common sense,” he advised.

The highly transmissible covid variant JN1 is being linked to the increases in the aftermath of festive holidays in Europe.

This does not cause more severe illness than previous variants, but can still lead to long covid.

In the UK, the JN1 wave is expected to peak mid-January, data scientist Professor Christina Pagel of the University College London said.

“And then infections will stay very high for a few weeks on the downward slope too. I am sure this wave will rival the first two Omicron waves in 2022 and might even exceed them,” she said.

Face masks are now mandatory in Spanish hospitals and healthcare centres after a surge in respiratory illnesses, the health ministry said. This includes popular tourist destinations such as the Canary Islands.

“We are talking about putting on a mask when you enter a health centre and taking it off when you leave,” health minister Monica Garcia told Cadena Ser radio.

In Italy, numbers suffering from flu-like illnesses reached a record high in late December, superseding even the covid epidemic, according to the National Health Institute.

Health authorities there said lower vaccination rates and fewer people wearing masks are linked to this.

The Italian Society of Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care warned that 1,100 patients were waiting to be admitted to hospitals in Rome.

The doctors said hospitals were cancelling operations to make room for emergency patients due to a chronic shortage of beds. Media outlet La Repubblica warned: “Hospitals on the brink”.