Ireland is preparing for an additional 9,000 Covid cases to be added to the official count, as the system struggles to cope with a wave of positive results, with health officials warning hospitals will not be able to cope with the trend if the trend continues .
The sharp increase in positive results has led to delays in formal reporting, said Professor Philip Nolan of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), although he said it “does not affect case management or contact tracking or our general monitoring and pandemic modeling ”.
On Thursday, NPHET estimated that the number of positive tests still pending registration was 4,000, more than doubling to 9,000 the next day.
On Friday, Ireland formally reported a daily record of 1,754 confirmed cases, exceeding 1,500 daily cases for the fourth consecutive day.
The chief physician, Dr. Tony Holohan, said that the biggest concern is the rapid increase in hospitalizations. “We are now admitting between 50 to 70 people a day in our hospital system. Unfortunately, we hope this gets worse before it gets better. Our health care system will not continue to deal with this level of impact. “
“We have also seen a significant increase in positive laboratory tests in the past few days, reflecting a real increase in the incidence of the disease, as well as the delay in sending people for tests during the Christmas period. As our systems achieve these effects, this puts significant pressure on our reporting system. “
On New Year’s Eve, Ireland entered a level five blockade, with non-essential stores closed, a 5 km travel limit, restrictions on family reunions and closed schools.
Paul Reid, CEO of the Health Service Executive (HSE), told RTÉ Radio 1: “The virus is absolutely rampant now in the community. Everyone is at extreme risk of contracting the virus. “
The health care system was not built to handle a pandemic and “cannot handle” the number of tests performed, he said. Symptomatic cases are now being prioritized as the demand for tests increases.
“The real picture in the last few days is likely to be close to 3,000 cases a day and that is the extent of the virus we are dealing with,” he said. “When we reach these levels, there is a strong impact on a whole range of areas, not just on our systems, on healthcare and on the volume that any system can handle.”
Colm Henry, the clinical director of HSE, asked everyone to treat others as if they had the virus, because its prevalence was “increasing exponentially”. “We know the virus is out of control,” he said.
Ireland went from the lowest infection rate in the European Union just two weeks ago to the fastest deterioration rate, after shops and large parts of the hospitality sector were able to reopen in most of December.
The incidence rate of 14 days per 100,000 inhabitants in Ireland went from 87 in early December to 321.3 at the end of the month, according to RTE. The death toll is now 2,248, with a total of 93,532 confirmed cases.
Starting on Wednesday, stricter testing measures by Covid will replace the ban on UK travelers, with passengers needing to show a negative test result in the previous three days in an attempt to contain the spread of a more transmissible variant of the virus, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.