Covid trends are ‘significant and worrying’, experts warn

PUBLIC health chiefs have said there are ‘significant and worrying trends’ in Covid-19 infection numbers over the past 10 days.

It comes as figures show there were 17 new cases confirmed yesterday and one more life lost.

On Tuesday, 36 new cases were reported, the highest number of cases since June 13, when 46 new cases were recorded. And overcrowding in A&Es is continuing to worsen with 174 patients on trolleys in hospitals around the country yesterday.

HSE chief Paul Reid voiced concern yesterday over the dramatic hike in confirmed cases in the last fortnight, with a ‘significant’ 20% increase in GP referrals. He told a Covid HSE briefing that close contacts of confirmed cases have now increased by 55%, from two, and 77% of cases are now under the age of 45.

Dr Ronan Glynn, acting chief medical officer, pleaded with people last night to help the country work towards the reopening of schools and limit their social activities. He said he appreciated how difficult it was but added: ‘These actions are vital to our collective effort to suppress this highly infectious disease as we work towards reopening our schools and our healthcare services, and to protect our healthcare workers.’

Earlier HSE chief Paul Reid warned that a large number of people are failing to appear for Covid-19 tests after being in close contact with a confirmed case. Many say they have no symptoms so don’t feel the need to get a follow-up test, the medical experts said. Speaking at the HSE briefing, Mr Reid said around 20%25% of people are not showing up for their day zero test. However, this rises significantly to 50% of people missing the day seven test.

He warned: ‘It’s really important to stress here that a person may identify as a negative test on day zero, with a quite real potential to test positive on the day seven. We strongly advise everybody to come forward, it’s really important you play a part for yourself, for your family, for the wider public, for society, and stopping the spread and second surge.’

He said that in most cases people say they will attend an appointment when contacted by the contact tracing team. However, they fail to appear for the scheduled test. Mr Reid added: ‘In some cases people are saying they feel fine, they feel that they don’t have symptoms and don’t have to go. The calls with those people are taking much longer than they did in the past, a call is taking double, sometimes triple the amount of time.

‘The likelihood of you testing positive having been in contact with a positive case is much higher.’ Dr Colm Henry, the HSE’s chief clinical officer, said there have been ‘very significant and worrying’ trends over the last week to ten days. He said that in the 14-day period to July 18 there were 267 confirmed cases – compared to 155 in the previous fortnight.

The rate of infection per 100,000 people increased from 2.5 to 5.61 in two weeks. The median age is now 33, with around 70% of cases involving people under 45.

The majority of cases are in Dublin, Kildare and Cork.

GP referrals have also increased by 20% for each week over the previous two weeks.

Meanwhile, Mr Reid said almost 1.4million people have downloaded the Covid-19 tracker app.