HALF OF THE patients admitted to intensive care units with Covid-19 have chronic heart disease, the Chief Medical Officer has revealed. 

This evening Dr Tony Holohan provided an analysis of the first 327 cases of patients with Covid-19 admitted to intensive care units. 

Half of these patients had chronic heart disease, 76 had chronic respiratory disease and 74 had diabetes. The CMO said there were 53 patients who had a BMI [body mass index] greater than 40, 34 of the patients had asthma requiring medication, 31 had cancer and 20 had chronic renal disease.

Holohan said some of these patients may have multiple underlying conditions. 

“Bear in mind that there will be overlap between those so we’re not saying that each one of those is separate, it may well be the case for example that a person with a BMI of over 40 also has diabetes,” he said.

Today health officials confirmed a further 37 people with the disease have died in Ireland, bringing the total to 1,375. There have been 22,248 confirmed cases in the country since the beginning of the outbreak.

More than 2,800 people have been hospitalised, with 373 of those admitted to intensive care units. 

The CMO also provided data on recovery. Of the first 21,929 cases, 15,711 or 71.6% are cases that have recovered in the community without needing hospitalisation.

An additional 6.4% or 1,399 are cases that have been discharged from hospital, bringing the total to 17,110. This means 78% of those cases have recovered.

Dr Holohan cautioned today that the World Health Organization has advised it is likely that there will be recurring epidemic eaves of Covid-19 interspersed with periods of low-level transmission.

“This means that when Ireland eases social distancing restrictions, we may have periods of time when the numbers of people infected increases significantly,” he said. 

“This is why it is vitally important that easing of social distancing restrictions is accompanied by a high level of adherence to the fundamental individual behaviours needed to guard against transmission of the virus. We have to adapt our behaviours in order to live safely with Covid-19.”