The HSE’s chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry has said there could be an autumn booster campaign to encourage more people to get their second booster vaccine.
To date, only 50 per cent of those eligible for the second booster have availed of it, while 75 per cent have had their first booster dose, he told Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show.
The new subvariants of Covid-19 are highly transmissible and people who had the Delta and BA.1 variant are being re-infected with the new BA.4 and BA.5 variants, Dr Henry explained.
He said there has been a “troubling” rise in cases in recent days with 496 people in hospital on Thursday, more than half of whom are “sick with Covid” while 45 per cent “showed up with Covid”.
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These numbers mean there is still pressure on the system, although “we are learning to live with the virus” and the high levels of vaccination in the country mean there is protection against serious illness, he said.
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The HSE has moved to “a mitigation phase” where the focus now is protecting vulnerable people, Dr Henry explained.
The continuing rise in the length of time people are waiting in emergency departments (ED) was “very troubling”. There were sustained high levels of presentation – 29,000 per week, the majority of whom were older people who were “deconditioned”. They were staying longer in hospital with more complicated treatment and discharge, Dr Henry said.
There was a need to “build up pathways of care” and to move away from ED. The solutions included more bed capacity and building models of access to care in the community.
Dr Henry said that the HSE continued to engage with the public, local TDs and the Minister for Health in relation to the “downgrading” of the ED in Navan hospital. The experience to date with the eight other level two hospitals in the country was that they were busier than ever, but that the small percentage who needed specialised care were given it immediately elsewhere.