Covid surge blamed for 25% spike in SouthDoc attendances over St Patrick's weekend

'I have never had the number of positives that I entered on Monday, I’ve never had that many altogether,' said Killarney GP Dr Gary Stack.

SouthDoc transport at its base near the Kinsale Road roundabout. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

The SouthDoc out-of-hours GP service saw 25% more people each day over the St Patrick’s Day holiday than on a typical bank holiday because Covid-19 is "rampant across Cork and Kerry".

Around 6,000 people contacted the service, many for respiratory symptoms, according to SouthDoc clinical director and Killarney GP Dr Gary Stack.

“The average for a bank holiday is about 1,200 — we were seeing 1,500 each day, so that’s more than a 25% increase,” he said. "I can only assume Covid accounted for a lot of the increase.

“In a local secondary school yesterday, I believe, there were 130 pupils missing.

"And I have never had the number of positives that I entered on Monday, I’ve never had that many altogether.” 

He expressed frustration at people’s unwillingness to accept they might have Covid-19.

“Monday, Tuesday, the amount of respiratory stuff we are seeing, and none of it Covid, they tell me it’s all sinusitis — I’ve given up trying to filter,” he said.

The amount of respiratory stuff we are seeing is off the wall.” 

He said his experience of patients' Covid symptoms chimes with Monaghan GP Dr Illona Duffy who has raised concerns about the changing nature of symptoms.

“The symptoms seem to be lot more scattered — a lot of it is sinus symptoms, but there seems to be some GI [gastrointestinal] stuff as well,” he said. 

Over the last month people have been a lot sicker than in the previous two or three months with Omicron. This variant appears to be, percentage-wise, a bit worse.” 

Chairman of the Irish Medical Organisation's GP committee, Dr Denis McCauley, told the Irish Examiner that he would like to see people wearing masks more often, although he stopped short of calling for the return of mandatory rules.

“It is still a highly infectious virus, and I think that the incidence is probably higher [than figures suggest] because people are not doing tests or are not registering the tests,” he said.

Dr McCauley said the rise in cases coming so soon after the relaxation of restrictions is proof that masks were working.

“I think wearing masks going into a shop, standing in a crowd, it’s not that much to ask,” he said.

The numbers are high, so just be respectful. The person beside you could have an immune deficiency, so opt for manners rather than mandatory.” 

Jan Rynne has chronic lymphocytic leukaemia which means she is as vulnerable to Covid-19 now as before getting vaccinated.

“I am still locked down,” she said. "I have been avoiding congregated public places. 

My two teenagers, who have to go school, are the only ones in their classes wearing the mask. That has posed huge challenges, they reluctantly agreed to do it, they’re very good.”

She said the removal of widespread mask-wearing has made her “more cautious”, and makes interactions more complex now for the rest of the family in Dublin.

“It’s a big palaver if the children want to go somewhere socially, with staying away from me afterwards and all the antigen tests,” she said.

“The 16-year-old had her TY [transition year] ball at the weekend. 

We are just strangers in the house at the moment, until we get past the seven days or thereabouts. It’s very difficult.” 

She called for the HSE to increase access to Covid treatments including the intravenous monoclonal antibody treatments and antivirals to ease anxieties for vulnerable groups.

On Wednesday, the Department of Health confirmed 7,038 positive cases through PCR testing and 14,060 through antigen tests.

There were 1,395 Covid-19 patients in hospitals, remaining at levels last seen in March 2021. The numbers in intensive care units dipped to 55 from 61 the day before.