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Deputy CMO Dr Ronan Glynn Sasko Lazarov/Rollingnews.ie
Coronavirus
Numbers in hospital lower than first wave peak as Ireland 'on track' for 200-400 cases a day by March
Under current projections, the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital will reach between 500 and 600 by the end of the month.
7.24am, 17 Feb 2021
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LAST UPDATE|17 Feb 2021
THERE WERE 813 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals across Ireland last night, as numbers continue to fall.
The number of patients in an ICU is also falling, with 151 people in intensive care yesterday.
St James’s Hospital in Dublin has the most number of patients with Covid-19 – with 98 people currently hospitalised. It’s followed by the Mater (73) and Connolly (71). Outside Dublin, Drogheda had the most number of patients hospitalised with Covid-19 at 48.
HSE CEO Paul Reid said on Twitter: “For the first day since we hit the peak of this wave, we’re now lower than the peak of the first wave, on hospitalisations & ICU.
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“The downward slope out of this is proving to be much slower than we would all like. But good hope.”
In a letter to Minister from Health Stephen Donnelly, deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said that the country “continues to experience a very concerning and fragile epidemiological situation.
“Incidence is falling but remains high and is currently four times higher than in early December 2020 and 100 times higher than July 2020,” Dr Glynn said.
“Our model projections show that if we can maintain a reproduction number between 0.5 and 0.9 for the coming weeks, we remain on track to have 200-400 cases per day by 1 March 2021, and 100-300 cases per day by 15 March 2021.”
Dr Glynn said that these projections are contingent on keeping transmission as low as possible for as long as possible.
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These projections would see 500-600 people needing hospital care at the end of February, falling to 250-400 in mid-March.
He added that with the British variant now dominant in Ireland, the situation in Ireland remains fragile which “underscores the importance of maintaining the recent extraordinary efforts in order to fully suppress this disease in the coming weeks and months”.
Separately, vaccinations continue today for people aged 85 and over after getting under way yesterday.
GP Dr Sumi Dunne said yesterday: “The level of vaccine confidence and enthusiasm for vaccination in this group has been widely reported, along with a sense of relief as hope for a normal life returns.”
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There’s a growing instability in the North these days. Strong leadership is needed North and South, to prevent the outbreak of violence, and to maintain the peace.
@Frog Náireach: There is peace and there is no chance of the violent past returning. These types of attacks are being carried out by Loyalists against immigrants or other loyalist gang members. They dont threaten the stability of the North.
You see the craziness in the way they drive down here alone. And in their laws where guilt is presumed and innocence must be proven. It’s sui generis. A place apart up there beyond the bogs and rushes and abandoned wastes of North Cavan and Fermanagh. Leave them where they are another 300 years might be fit for civilised company then.
@John O’Driscoll: You on the sauce early tonight then? You sound like a teenage girl trying to imbibe the spirit Seamus Heaney in a bid to sound intellectual. The only abandoned waste here is your own grasp of reality. If you’re an example of this “civilised company” that is lacking everywhere North of Cavan ; then god help us. Pompous little man.
More renewable hate initiatives. Never let them in they are different from us. Been too long and would be a disaster. They remember 400 years ago like it was yesterday and every carefully planned insult murder and wrong done since. Done by the “other side” that is. Never their own. Or “mines” as they say in that curious argot.
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