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Current Covid wave has peaked but hospital capacity remains under pressure, says CMO

46 Covid-19 related deaths were reported in the first 19 days of this month.

IRELAND’S 14-DAY INCIDENCE rate has fallen by 13% in the past week, according to a report from interim Chief Medical Officer Professor Breda Smyth to Minister for Health Stephen Donelly. 

As of 20 July, the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 people was 524, down from 600 the week previously, although the CMO noted that incidence rates are likely to be underestimates.

There were 704 confirmed Covid-19 cases in hospital on the morning of Friday 22 July, compared with 943 on the previous Friday.

Professor Smyth wrote that:

“You will be aware from colleagues in the Department that, with 704 COVID-19 inpatients on 22nd July, the acute hospital system remains under considerable pressure with Covid-19 continuing to impact on acute capacity.”

“Covid-19 mortality has remained relatively stable, although it is noted that there can be a lag in reporting of deaths.”

The report stated that there have been 7,620 Covid-19 related deaths reported in Ireland since the outset of the pandemic.

46 of these took place from the beginning of July until midnight until 19 July.

86 people died in the month of June, 121 in May and 347 in April.

“The COVID-19 burden on acute hospital care remains significant but has reduced from a recent peak,” Professor Smyth added.

It is possible that deaths will appear to increase in the coming weeks as a result of the lag in the recording of deaths that took place during the peak.

A total of 10,781 confirmed PCR cases have been reported in the 7 days to 20 July, which was a 24% decrease from the previous week.

The report continued: “In summary, the overall epidemiological situation indicates continuing high levels of infection and a significant number of cases receiving general hospital care, although this figure has fallen over recent days.”

“On average, there have been 99 new Covid-19 hospitalisations per day observed in the seven days to 22 July.”

As of last Tuesday the age breakdown of cases hospitalised for Covid-19 showed that 36% were aged 80 and older, 35% aged 65-79, 15% aged 50-64, 10% aged 15-49 and 4%
aged 0-14 years old.

There were 38 confirmed cases in critical care as of 22 July, compared with 35 a week before. 16 people were invasively ventilated.

There were 289 hospital acquired Covid-19 infections reported in the week ending 10 July, compared to 230 in the week ending 3 July and 199 in the week ending 26 June.

Earlier this month, at the peak of the infectious wave, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) called for elective procedures to be rescheduled at University Hospital Galway due to the overcrowding issues and Covid-19 infections.

70 patients were without a bed in the hospital, the highest level of overcrowding in UHG since 2019.

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    Mute Sarah Lou
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    Jul 26th 2022, 4:06 PM

    The HSE has been under pressure for ever. I dont know what needs to happen for someone in the structure to say enough is enough and sort it all out but the way it is at present is beyond dangerous. I recently had the most bizarre interaction with the HSE, the only thing they did correctly was send the invoice for the ED fee.

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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 26th 2022, 5:20 PM

    @Sarah Lou: not defending the HSE but what they need is more, hospital beds, more, staff for that, better pay for them and more available housing. The lack of hospital beds is a system of how poorly managed our economy has been in recent years. We’ve been so obsessed with creating jobs that we don’t seem to care who we’re creating them for. By we I mean the government of course. When we create 20k jobs but 15k need to be filled from abroad we end up when a renting crisis and a wage structure that can’t contain it. From about 1995 to 2005 we got it right. From then on it’s been getting worse year on year

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    Mute Sarah Lou
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    Jul 26th 2022, 5:28 PM

    @Gearóid MacEachaidh: Fair enough lets leave it as it is. I mean the fact I had a potentially life threatening injury and noone even checked my blood pressure and I required surgery in another hospital having represented at my GP the following day is because….its no longer 2005?? And I am so lucky that I am ok and able to debate this with you today….I feel bad for the unlucky people who are not.

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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 26th 2022, 5:52 PM

    @Sarah Lou: not debating anything with you. You seem to be seeing an argument in my comment that isn’t there. Everyone agrees with you that we need more hospital space but we can’t just magic the nurses and doctors into existence. They’re getting paid with better conditions abroad.

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    Mute Sarah Lou
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    Jul 26th 2022, 6:01 PM

    @Gearóid MacEachaidh: “not defending the HSE but” there is your arguement. You are defending the HSE. It does not need to be as it is, it can be fixed and functional. The current working budget is so big 71 million went missing and noone knows where to… It is not ok that people are having adverse outcomes and dying for no reason and people are just saying “but….” as you yourself did

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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 26th 2022, 6:29 PM

    @Sarah Lou: I’m not defending the HSE. They can’t retain current staff nevmind hire new staff when they’re all moving abroad. The issues that are making people go abroad are far bigger than the HSEs remit. What specifically would you do differently if you were in charge of the HSE?

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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 26th 2022, 8:11 PM

    @Sarah Lou: and can you name the people who died as a result of HSE ineptitude….

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    Mute Frances Casey
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    Jul 27th 2022, 2:01 PM

    @Gearóid MacEachaidh: Maybe listen to news. There’s barely a week goes by where the H.S.E is not being sued for incompetence.

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    Mute Gearóid MacEachaidh
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    Jul 27th 2022, 2:35 PM

    @Frances Casey: the HSE or individual hospitals?

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    Mute Skipper Mac
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    Jul 26th 2022, 4:23 PM

    I think we are going to be living with Covid for quite sometime. With that in mind would it not be more beneficial for the HSE to have a hospital devoted to Covid treatment and isolation like we did with TB at one time. It would take pressure off mainstream hospitals to carry out normal day to day treatments and procedures.

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Jul 26th 2022, 7:02 PM

    @Skipper Mac: I guess the problem there is that of all the people with Covid in hospital, many have other and varying medical conditions and illnesses to be treated also.

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    Mute Alan Kenny
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    Jul 26th 2022, 4:20 PM

    It peaked around 2 weeks ago on the 11th. They only realising that now?

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    Mute Trish O Dea
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    Jul 26th 2022, 4:47 PM

    @Alan Kenny: usually takes 7-10 days to translate into hospital cases

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    Mute Colum Cusack
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    Jul 26th 2022, 4:05 PM

    You could just omit “current covid wave has peaked but”

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    Mute Ger Murray
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    Jul 26th 2022, 9:47 PM

    How are some people avoiding to get COVID , any studies being carried out?

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    Mute Frances Casey
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    Jul 27th 2022, 2:02 PM

    @Ger Murray: Especially those who never got vaccinated!

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    Mute Cindy Brolin
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    Jul 27th 2022, 2:21 AM

    ‘According to the health body (WHO), 2,002,058 people have died FROM Covid out of the 218,225,294 registered cases in the (European) region.’ This is not correct! Strictly speaking, an infection cannot be the immediate cause of death, whereas death can be brought on by an infection as a proximate cause, causing respiratory depression, so doctors should not state that an individual has died FROM Covid-19, and are advised to state that victims have died WITH Covid-19. The significance of this distinction is important for a correct public understanding of the mortality of Covid-19. Which according to the above figures is less than 1%.

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