Coronavirus Ireland: Five Things We Learned From Tonight’s Nphet Covid Briefing

Tonight’s briefing from the National Public Health Emergency Team heard calls for increased adherence to “basic” public health guidelines, as well as an admission by Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony holohan that vaccines alone are not enough to disrupt high transmission.

Here are the top five things we learned tonight:

Dr Holohan calls on everyone to do more

CMO Dr Holohan said people needed to “do more” to stick to public health guidelines.

New research from the Institute for Economic and Social Research (ESRI) shows that 20% of people said they “rarely or never” wear a mask, socially distanced themselves, or sanitized their hands while on the move.

He said individuals as well as businesses and their employers should stick to public health guidelines.

He said there had been a “slippage” in things like mask wearing and social distancing.

“We have to do more – it may not be much more, collectively as a population, but it will be each of us who ask ourselves as members of the population – are we each doing as much as can we reasonably do? “

Vaccines alone are not enough

Despite a very high vaccination rate, Dr Holohan said “precautionary measures” such as Covid passes and mask wearing will remain throughout the winter.

“It’s not going to activate the vaccination alone. Obviously, vaccination alone will not be enough to reverse transmission, ”said Dr Holohan.

“It is very clear that no country can do without resorting to certain non-pharmaceutical interventions, a certain level of good behavior in terms of public health and certain protections like Covid passes and things like that to add. to the bonus and the benefit that comes from vaccination. ,” he said.

Elective proceedings canceled

In a presentation at the briefing, Deputy Managing Director Dr Ronan Glynn said there was “significant” pressure on hospitals due to Covid infections.

There has been a 27% increase in the number of hospital patients over the past fortnight, with 503 recorded this morning and the number in intensive care now at 101.

Elective procedures are now canceled accordingly.

“We are seeing significant pressure on our hospital system due to the disease profile at the moment. We are seeing the cancellation of elective activities. We are seeing significant staff absences,” he said. .

42% of intensive care patients have been vaccinated

Yesterday, 42% of intensive care patients were fully immunized (41 patients).

6 pc were partially vaccinated and 52 pc were not vaccinated at all (50 patients).

There are five patients who are currently or have recently been pregnant and none of them are vaccinated.

Dr Holohan said Nphet is concerned about increasing levels of transmission and said that “collectively, as a country” we need to look at how we adhere to public health measures.

The numbers go up

Nphet said tonight that the incidence of the virus was increasing at a “worrying rate”.

The highest incidence is observed in children aged 5 to 12 years.

Test positivity is increasing in all age groups and the reproductive R number is currently below 1.5.

“This is enough for this pandemic to continue to grow at an alarming rate.”