Record number of ICU patients

...and a third of all those hospitalised are under 65

A WORRYING record was set yesterday, as the number of Covid-19 patients in ICUs across the country reached a new peak, while a shocking daily Covid death toll of 46 was also confirmed. As of yesterday at 2pm, there were 158 people in intensive care, which surpassed the previous high of 155 which occurred on April 10 and 11 during the first wave of the pandemic.

And it emerged one third of all Covid hospitalisations this month were of people aged under 65.

There were 1,692 people in hospital with Covid-19 as of 2pm yesterday, after an additional 128 admissions in the preceding 24 hours.

This was down slightly from the 1,700 reported at 11am yesterday.

On a positive note, the total number of daily Covid cases was down for a second day in a row.

The Department of Health reported an additional 3,086 confirmed cases of the virus yesterday, which is the lowest daily number since New Year’s Day.

Of the 46 deaths of Covid patients reported yesterday, two were from December, while the remaining 44 occurred this month.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony

4,000 healthcare staff remain out due to Covid-19

Holohan said that the increased mortality seen yesterday is the effect of the recent surge in infections and that higher daily death tolls can be expected in the coming days. ‘Unfortunately, due to the unsustainably high level of Covid19 infection we have experienced as a country over the past few weeks, sadly these figures are likely to continue for the next period of time,’ he said.

Deputy CMO Dr Ronan Glynn shared a worrying statistic in relation to hospitalisations yesterday, saying that so far in January, one in three patients admitted to hospital or an ICU have been under the age of 65. ‘This clearly demonstrates that Covid-19 affects us all, regardless of age or underlying condition. It highlights the need for us all to protect one another by staying at home,’ he said.

Echoing Dr Holohan’s concerns on mortality figures, Dr Glynn warned last night on RTÉ’s Six One News: ‘It is unfortunately reasonable to expect that we will see high numbers of deaths over the days to come.’

On a positive note, he said NPHET is seeing decreases in GP referrals and decreases in positivity rates, but he said to keep that going people need to stay at home to prevent i nfection spread, otherwise there will be ‘simply unsustainable’ case numbers for hospitals to deal with.

The HSE has said it has the capacity to ‘surge’ to 350 ICU beds if needed. According to HSE operational data, as of 8pm on Monday, there were 301 adult beds open and staffed across the entire hospital sector.

In total, nine of these were in St James’s Hospital in Dublin, with University Hospital Limerick, Mullingar Hospital and Mayo University Hospital having three free ICU beds each. However, 13 hospitals had no available adult intensive-care beds available.

Citing the latest number of Covid patients in hospital and in ICUs, HSE chief Paul Reid said: ‘Nobody wants more people sick with Covid19. The big ask of everyone is to stay at home and help get our hospital and nursing homes back to safer levels. Our healthcare teams ask just this of us.’

In a boost to the Government’s vaccination roll-out, the HSE confirmed yesterday that it received the first 3,600 doses of the easier-to-administer Moderna vaccine.

A spokesman said: ‘ We are hopeful of increased deliveries in weeks to come.’

Between 50,000 and 55,000 people will be vaccinated this week, the Tánaiste told his parliamentary party meeting yesterday.

Leo Varadkar informed his party’s TDs and senators it is hoped everyone in a nursing home or longterm residential care centre will be vaccinated by Sunday week.

He also told the first Fine Gael party meeting of the new year that the sharp rise in positive Covid cases was twice as bad as the worst-case projections. Mr Varadkar added the situation in hospitals was going to be very difficult for the next few weeks due to the high case numbers.

On Monday, NPHET predicted the number of patients in hospital will peak at between 2,200 and 2,500 in the next two weeks, with an estimated 200 to 400 expected to be admitted to ICUs.

The HSE said yesterday that it is being significantly challenged in terms of staff availability. The number of staff out because they are a close contact of a Covid-19 case or have the virus themselves is now over 4,000 across the community and acute sector.

Meanwhile, all passengers arriving into Ireland will have to provide a negative Covid-19 test prior to departure from this Saturday. The test must be taken within 72 hours prior to arrival here.

Arrivals from Britain and South Africa had already been required to provide a negative test.