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Ireland prepares to add 9,000 more Covid cases to official tally as system struggles to handle spike in positive results, with health officials warning hospitals will not be able to cope if trend continues .
The sharp increase in positive results has led to delays in formal notification, said Professor Philip Nolan of the National Public Health Emergencies Team (NPHET), although he said it “does not affect management. cases or contact tracing or our global pandemic monitoring and modeling. “.
On Thursday, NPHET estimated the number of positive tests still pending registration to be 4,000, more than doubling to 9,000 the next day.
Ireland officially reported a daily record of 1,754 confirmed cases on Friday, surpassing 1,500 daily cases for the fourth day in a row.
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said the biggest concern was the rapid increase in hospitalizations. “We are currently admitting between 50 and 70 people per day in our hospital system. Unfortunately, we expect it to get worse before it gets better. Our healthcare system will not continue to cope with this level of impact. “
“We have also seen a significant increase in positive laboratory tests in recent days, reflecting a real increase in the incidence of the disease as well as the delay in people showing up for testing during the Christmas season. As our systems catch up with these effects, they put considerable strain on our reporting system. “
On New Years Eve, Ireland entered a level five lockdown, with the closure of non-essential stores, a 5 km travel limit, restrictions on household gatherings and school closures.
Paul Reid, CEO of the Health Service Executive (HSE), told RTÉ Radio 1: “The virus is now rampant in the community. Everyone is at extreme risk of contracting the virus. “
The healthcare system was not designed to cope with a pandemic and “cannot cope” with the number of tests being carried out, he said. Symptomatic cases are now prioritized as the demand for testing increases.
“The real picture over the past few days is most likely close to 3,000 cases per day and that is the extent of the virus we are dealing with,” he said. “When we get to these levels it has a serious impact on a whole range of areas, not just our systems, the health service and the volume that any system can handle.”
Colm Henry, the clinical director of HSE, urged everyone to treat others as if they have the virus because its prevalence “is increasing exponentially.” “We know the virus is out of control,” he said.
Ireland has gone from the lowest infection rate in the European Union just two weeks ago to the fastest rate of deterioration, after stores and much of the hospitality industry shrank been allowed to reopen for most of December.
The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants in Ireland fell from 87 in early December to 321.3 at the end of the month, according to RTE. The death toll now stands at 2,248 for a total of 93,532 confirmed cases.
From Wednesday, stricter Covid testing measures will replace the ban on travelers from the UK, with passengers having to show a negative test result in the previous three days in a bid to curb the spread of a more transmissible variant of the virus, Foreign Minister Simon Dit Coveney.
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