1,701 new Covid cases in the space of a week
WHILE the sight of vaccines being rolled out at Wexford General Hospital was a welcome sight last week, it came against the backdrop of the very worst time that the hospital has endured since staff treated our very first case of Covid-19 way back on March 16.
The numbers of people sick in hospital with the virus are now at their highest ever level. The latest figures show 35 people on the Covid wards, while six people are battling for their lives in critical care. To put this in context, Wexford General is said to have a maximum of seven critical care beds for both Covid and non-Covid patients, and there are currently no ICU beds available for any new patients.
The pressure on the hospital is symptomatic of the overall spike that Wexford has seen. While we could scarcely have imagined it back in early December, last week saw us record a huge total of 1,701 new cases of the virus; 2,150 in the past fortnight. People looked on in disbelief on Saturday evening as the figures came in and revealed that Wexford had recorded 405 new cases of the virus in the previous 24 hour period. It was a number that was to be repeated exactly on Sunday, a further 405 cases being added to the total.
The latest release from the CSO offering a county breakdown of Covid deaths only goes up to December 11 and has Wexford’s death toll at 28, however, this figure has likely increased significantly in the intervening period.
The latest breakdown available by electoral area covered the two week period from December 22 to January 4. It showed that the New Ross District was still leading the way in terms of new cases, recording 303 over the course of that fortnight. Enniscorthy was next with 165, followed by Wexford (129), Gorey (90), Kilmuckridge (77) and finally Rosslare (51).
Predictably, the highest 14 day incidence rate in the county was in the New Ross District with 1,092 per 100,000 population, while Rosslare was among the lowest in the country with a rate of 237.
There can be no doubt that a level of Covid-exhaustion has set in since the pandemic first arrived with us in March. People have understandably grown tired of restrictions. However, with our health service set to be overwhelmed as numbers continue to rise, we need an urgent return to where we were during the first lockdown in order to alleviate the crushing pressure on our frontline heroes.