Cork needs to 'act like its under' level 5 restrictions to push virus back, doctor warns
Dr Corinna Sadlier, Consultant in Infectious Diseases at Cork University Hospital, who warned that people need to adopt Level 5 restrictions now to prevent further increases in cases in Cork. Picture: Gerard McCarthy Photography
An infectious diseases consultant has called on the people of Cork to act as if it is under level five restrictions now to prevent Covid-19 from overwhelming hospitals in the coming weeks.
Dr Corinna Sadlier said Cork University Hospital (CUH), the largest hospital in the region, currently has nine Covid-positive cases.
Although none of these patients are currently in intensive care, the unit is already acting at capacity, and any surge would be "of serious concern" for the hospital.
Some 107 new cases of the virus were announced last night in Cork, which still has the second highest number of Covid-19 patients in the country.
"We're probably going to see increases over the next 10 days to two weeks because the virus has already seeded," Dr Sadlier said. "It's what we do now that will depress things after that."
"We should all be acting as if we're in level five, be more stringent at a personal level to push this back, because it's only going one way."
Dr Sadlier said that, while the situation has started to stabilise in Dublin, Cork is now lagging behind and needs to act urgently to prevent the virus' further spread.
"We need to do more than what we've been doing in the last few weeks, and quickly. Because the virus is back: People and their actions are the only things that can stop it from spreading," she said.
"People coming into the hospital have caught the virus through community transmission — they don't know where they got it.
"When the virus is in the community we have to be meticulous in adhering to public health measures or it will spread."
Dr Sadlier said CUH is already operating "at full tilt" and escalation meetings are now taking place to make plans for a potential surge.
During the last surge, all elective treatments and operations were cancelled, which Dr Sadlier hopes can be avoided this time.
