THERE WILL BE “approximately” 1,000 cases of Covid-19 reported in Ireland today, HSE chief Paul Reid has said.
Speaking at the weekly HSE press briefing, Reid said “cases, most likely, will continue to rise from every day on now”.
“Yesterday, as you know, we saw one of the highest numbers of cases in one day since February,” he said.
“We know and expect that today’s cases will be approximately 1,000,” Reid added.
“Any look forward ahead would clearly demonstrate this is on a very significant rise of case numbers.”
Public health officials yesterday confirmed a further 783 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
The Department of Health reported that 73 patients with the illness were in hospital yesterday, including 20 in intensive care units.
“We all need to treat this with the significant caution it merits”
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 15, 2021
HSE Chief Executive @paulreiddublin says confirmed cases will continue to rise going forward, adding that today’s number of confirmed cases will be “approximately 1,000” | More: https://t.co/GxT8T9VgFs pic.twitter.com/x9V9Ir3jnY
Niamh O’Beirne, National Lead for Testing and Tracing, told the press briefing that the testing system is now in surge, exceeding 20,000 tests per day.
The positivity rate over last week was 5.9% across community test centres, O’Beirne said, adding that yesterday the rate was 7.8%.
She said staff are seeing more travel-related cases from holiday destinations such as Spain, Portugal and the UK.
Over the last few days, around 5% of positive cases were vaccinated people, O’Beirne added.
Speaking at yesterday’s briefing, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said there had been 12 deaths in June, and one so far in July.
Dr Glynn said the latest data is showing clear increases in incidence of disease right across the country.
“There is no question that the delta variant is having a considerable impact of transmission of Covid-19,” said Glynn, noting that the Delta variant also appears to be presenting with a different variety of symptoms including headache, sore throat and blocked or runny nose.
“If you have any symptoms of a cold or flu it is vital that you isolate immediately and arrange a test,” he added.
Indoor dining
The Chief Medical Officer yesterday advised parents that it is safer not to bring children into indoor dining settings.
Dr Tony Holohan said for those who wished to go out with their children, “dining outdoors is still possible”.
The indoor dining legislation, passed late last night, will see fully vaccinated people and people who have recovered from Covid-19 in the last six months allowed to eat and drink indoors.
Under the new rules, children of fully vaccinated people will also be permitted to enter indoors if they are with their parent or guardian.
Speaking this morning, the Taoiseach: “We need to trust people too. This is a collective effort as a society to try and deal with an unprecedented global pandemic, which has many twists and turns the most recent now being the Delta variant.”
He added: “The numbers are rising case numbers are rising, hospitalisations are rising. So we need to be very vigilant. And people need to take the advice of the chief medical officer in respect of this seriously. But at the same time, you know, in terms of government, I think government has created a good balance here.”
With reporting by Christina Finn and Michelle Hennessy
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