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6 takeaways from the latest HSE Covid-19 briefing

Updated / Wednesday, 22 Dec 2021 17:24
'If you do want to give a really nice gift that's not just for Christmas, the best you can do is go get your booster,' Paul Reid said
'If you do want to give a really nice gift that's not just for Christmas, the best you can do is go get your booster,' Paul Reid said

The HSE has held its final weekly Covid-19 briefing before Christmas, highlighting that the country faces a surge in cases in the coming weeks due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Here's six takeaways from the briefing that you may have missed.

Community positivity rate has risen to over 21%

HSE National Director Damien McCallion said the test positivity rate among the community has risen to 21.2% in recent days.

He said the HSE is seeing an increase in community referrals over the past seven days too - up by 16% - with acute referrals and primary care GP referrals up also.

"Yesterday was our busiest day so far in community testing with nearly 32,000 testing appointments offered across our testing sites," he told the briefing.

The weekly capacity for PCR tests has also risen from 100,000 to 245,000, with plans to scale up further.

"We're actually heading into January at a much higher level of demand on our resources"

HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid opened this afternoon's briefing by putting people on notice that as Ireland faces another January period of surging case numbers amid the new Omicron variant, it does so with an even higher level of demand on services in comparison to last January.

Mr Reid outlined the situation facing healthcare staff in the weeks ahead in terms of demand.

He said that the health system will enter January with nearly double the number of Covid-positive patients in hospital, as well as five times the number in ICU.

Mr Reid did also note however, that the capacity for vaccination is much increased in comparison, but that this was also a huge demand on healthcare workers.

Unvaccinated patients make up majority of ICU patients

Paul Reid also gave a breakdown on those currently being treated in intensive care.

He said 53% of those in hospital overall with Covid had not received a vaccine, while 54% of Covid patients in ICU had also not received a single dose.

Mr Reid also noted that the HSE continues to see between 17,000-18,000 people each week coming forward for their first dose, adding that vaccination is always there for those ready to step forward.

Effect of boosters being seen in older age groups

Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry told the briefing that incidence of Covid-19 has fallen week-on-week in those over the age of 65, which was a reflection of the effects of the booster vaccine campaign.

However, he noted that while "there's been a fall at one end of the demographic scale," there was "a big rise at the other side".

Incidence among those aged 19-24 has seen a "significant rise", he said.

Number of health staff out with Covid has fallen

Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor told the briefing that the number of healthcare staff out due to Covid stands at 3,800.

This is a drop of over 1,200 she said, from just a high level of over 5,000 seen only weeks ago.

A Booster is not just for Christmas...

With Christmas around the corner, Paul Reid said expressed thanks to the public and to all healthcare staff for their efforts, saying they could not be thanked enough.

He said that if people wanted to treat someone to a really nice gift that was not just for Christmas, then the best that they could do is to receive their booster vaccine dose.

"If you do want to give a really nice gift that's not just for Christmas, the best you can do is go get your booster," he said.

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