Staff working with older people most affected as covid-19 'trends upwards', says HSE

Across all HSE staff, 5.3% of absences for May were linked to covid-19 with this higher for nurses and midwives at 6.3%.

The number of hospital patients with covid-19 is “trending upwards” again, the HSE has warned as new figures show staff working with older people are most affected by the virus.

Up to the end of June there was an increase of 16% among hospital patients affected and the HSE said this reflected an increase of 103% over the last 14 days. The main reason patients were admitted to ICU (intensive care units) is covid-19 at 23% of those patients.