A further 744 cases of Covid-19 and four deaths have been reported to the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), which believes the disease is circulating at a higher rate than the numbers reflect.
In a statement on Sunday evening, the Department of Health said a total of 86,129 cases have been confirmed in the State to date and 2,204 deaths related to the disease have been reported since the pandemic began.
Sunday’s numbers were considerably lower than the record 1,296 cases reported a day earlier, but chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said he believed this reflected the fact that fewer tests were carried out on Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day.
He said that Nphet believes “there are higher levels of disease circulating in the community than today’s reported numbers reflect”.
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“We expect, therefore, to see a large increase in cases reported over the coming days,” he added.
Of the latest cases, 246 were in Dublin with 131 in Cork, 51 in Limerick, 40 in Wexford, 33 in Donegal and the remaining 243 cases were spread across 19 counties.
The department said 64 per cent of cases were among people aged under 45, with a median age of 34. It said 388 of those who tested positive were men and 354 were women.
There are currently 324 Covid-19 patients in hospital, with 26 people with the disease in intensive care.
“We have seen a significant increase in the number of hospitalisations in the last two weeks from less than 190 to 324 today,” Dr Holohan said. “This indicates a deteriorating disease trajectory nationally and is a significant reminder of the severity of this disease.
“There have been further increases across key indicators of Covid-19 right across the country and the growth rate of the epidemic has accelerated in recent days.”
The 14-day incidence rate stands at 209.6 cases per 100,000 people nationally, with the highest rates in Donegal (425.9) and Wexford (348.6). The incidence rate in Dublin is 249.1 with the lowest levels in Leitrim (68.7) and Offaly (83.4).
Not anticipated
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar on Sunday said that nobody anticipated that Covid-19 cases would rise at the rate seen in recent days.
Mr Varadkar told Newstalk’s On The Record programme that the State’s recent six week lockdown “didn’t work to the extent we hoped it would” and that health authorities did not expect “the numbers would rise so quickly” after restrictions were relaxed.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid on Sunday acknowledged that Covid-19 case numbers had reached “alarming levels”.
He said around 23,000 tests had been completed in one day - a new record - due to increased demand and that positivity levels were reaching 10 per cent on some days.
Rising contacts
Mr Reid also expressed concern about the number of contacts people had, saying the average had risen from around 2.5 to more than five per confirmed case, with 10 or 15 contacts in some instances.
Demand on the contact tracing service had increased due day to more confirmed cases and individuals infected with the disease having been meeting more people, he said.
He said the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 had risen “quite significantly” to 320, up from 255 on Christmas Eve. However, the number of people in intensive care with the virus remains manageable at 22.
Asked whether hospitals would be able to cope during the usually busy period after Christmas, Mr Reid said the health system was in a “much stronger position” than in previous years with about 82 per cent less people on trolleys.
“We’re going in stronger but it’s equally very volatile”, he cautioned.
Retail
On the decision to allow non-essential retail outlets to remain open, the Tánaiste said that if Nphet advised that “closing non-essential retail would only make a small difference in cases then you have to ask is it worth all the other consequences and bear in mind any restrictions we have in place now are going to be there for a prolonged period, now we have the vaccine”.
“If a critical mass of people have the vaccine, first of all you will see the mortality rate fall because if those most at risk of getting sick or dying are vaccinated you will then see case the fatality rate and the incidence rate falling.”
However, he did not see gatherings of 50 people or more taking place again “until the summer”.
