THE NUMBER OF people with Covid-19 in Irish hospitals is continuing to decrease.
As of yesterday, 1,100 patients (down from 1,212 the day before) with Covid-19 were in hospitals, including 173 (down from 177) in critical care.
There are 43 free ICU beds around the country, according to the latest HSE figures.
Meanwhile, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) will today tell an Oireachtas committee that frontline healthcare workers should receive compensation for their work during the pandemic.
The INMO will call for an independent investigation into healthcare worker infection and will criticise the “slow, reluctant” decision-making processes within the HSE and the government.
The organisation said it lodged a claim in November for compensatory leave due to fatigue and overworking in 2020. It said this “has not yet been responded to”.
Healthcare workers in Northern Ireland and Scotland are set to receive a £500 (€570) payment in recognition for their work during the pandemic.
Number of cases
Public health officials yesterday confirmed a further 829 cases of Covid-19 and six deaths in Ireland.
There have now been a total of 204,397 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland, and 3,687 deaths.
As of 5 February, 230,766 people in Ireland had received a Covid-19 vaccine – 151,212 first doses and 79,554 second doses.
From next Monday, 15 February, around 900 GPs around the country still begin vaccinating over-70s, starting with people aged 85 and over.
Supply issues and the government’s decision that over-70s would not receive the newly-approved AstraZeneca vaccine, and instead be given the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, looks set to delay the initial deadline to vaccinate this age group.
At yesterday’s briefing, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said he believes there is reason to be optimistic for the future and that we have come through the worst of this pandemic.
He said the nation has “already passed what is the worst of this disease” and added that we will not have to endure what we did during January of this year.
“I think there are many reasons to be optimistic and have confidence that that’s the case, first and foremost, amongst them is the, is, is the performance of the population over the past number of weeks, and their willingness to keep going with these measures to get case counts low,” Glynn said.
The public health system was creaking before the pandemic – has Covid-19 broken it? Read more here on how to support Noteworthy to investigate this issue.
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