Waterford, Carlow and Wexford have highest Covid rates as cases rise by a third

The number of Covid-19 cases confirmed by a PCR test increased by almost one-third last week, though other indicators for the disease remain stable.

There was a 32.2 per cent rise in the number of confirmed cases of the virus, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

Although only small sections of the population are routinely tested when they have symptoms, there was also a 21.4 per cent rise in the number of self-report antigen positives in the wider population.

However, the positivity rate for PCR tests, an indicator of the level of infection in the community, remained stable at 12 per cent.

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Waterford, Carlow and Wexford had the highest rates of confirmed cases last week, while Roscommon, Cavan and Longford had the lowest.

The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 remains on a downward trend while ICU hospitalisations are stable.

There were 301 patients with the virus in hospital on Thursday, down from 316 the previous day. Hospitalisations have been trending downwards since the latest wave peaked on October 12th, when there were 486 Covid patients in hospital.

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There were 11 patients with Covid in ICU on Thursday, the same number as over a month ago, on October 9th.

Some 43 Covid outbreaks were notified last week, according to the HPSC, an increase of eight on the previous week. This included 16 outbreaks in hospitals and 18 in nursing homes.

On Thursday, Tallaght University Hospital warned of lengthy delays and long wait-times for non-urgent patients attending its emergency department.

The hospital says high numbers of patients are attending the ED and it has activated its full capacity protocol.

Admission rates are also high and there is a shortage of beds in the hospital, a spokeswoman said. In addition, high numbers of patients in hospital are waiting for home care packages or a nursing home place.

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“We are asking the public to consider alternative care options before attending the emergency department as unfortunately people with less urgent complaints will experience long wait times,” she said. “The hospital regrets any delay a patient of any age experiences whilst waiting in our ED, patients are prioritised according to clinical need.”

There were 36 patients waiting for admission in the hospital’s ED on Thursday morning, according to the daily TrolleyCount by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation. This was lower than four other hospitals, including the worst performer, University Hospital Limerick, which had 88 patients on trolleys.

Nationally, there were 533 patients waiting for admission, according to the INMO.