A near-record number of daily Covid cases was reported in the Republic on Tuesday as a World Health Organisation official warned that Ireland lifted pandemic restrictions too “brutally”.

The organisation’s Europe director Hans Kluge told a press conference in Moldova that he was “optimistic but vigilant” about the pandemic’s development in Europe.

Covid was on the rise in 18 out of 53 countries in the WHO European region, he said.

Hospital Report

“The countries where we see a particular increase are the United Kingdom, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy and Germany”.

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The main reason behind the increase was likely to be the BA.2 variant, which was more transmissible, but not more dangerous than other variants, he said. In addition, however, “those countries are lifting the restrictions brutally from too much to too few,” he said.

A total of 23,702 new Covid cases were reported in the Republic on Tuesday, one of the highest daily totals since the pandemic began.

The figure comprised 7,729 additional PCR-confirmed cases notified to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, and 15,973 people who registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal on Monday - the highest number who so registered on a single day.

There were 1,338 Covid-19 patients in hospital as of 8am on Tuesday, of whom 61 were in ICU.

Immunology expert Prof Luke O’Neill has called for Covid testing facilities to be “ramped up” for the next four to six weeks as the new wave of the coronavirus hits the country.

He backed calls from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) for mandatory mask-wearing to be reintroduced in indoor settings.

Prof O’Neill said the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron was 30 per cent more infectious than the previous version of that Covid strain, which in turn was 70 per cent more transmissible than the Delta variant.

The incubation time for BA.2 is also shorter, he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show, but the high vaccination rates in Ireland have meant there is greater protection, “otherwise the ICUs would be full”.

Prof O’Neill said Denmark had already experienced the BA.2 variant and it was likely the current wave in Ireland would peak in early April and then drop.

But he warned that everybody should be “triple vaxxed” and people who are vulnerable or over the age of 60 should get a fourth shot.

He said the 700,000 people who had received their first two vaccines and then got Covid, meaning they weren’t able to get a booster, should get their third shot now. This would give them even better protection and “a durable response”, he added.

Prof O’Neill said there have been major developments in the area of vaccines. One, which was made in Scotland, could work against any strain while another was an intranasal vaccine which was easy to administer. There were 137 vaccines still in development, he added, which will give better protection.

Hospital pressure

The increase in Covid cases is putting pressure on hospitals and creating unsafe situations for patients, general secretary of the INMO Phil Ní Sheaghdha said.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

Hospitals were always under pressure after a bank holiday weekend, she said, and combined with high levels of Covid-19 in the community there was a “very unsafe situation”.

The “tremendous pressure” to find space for patients was leading to decisions being made that were “simply unsafe”, she added.

Although recent research indicated that two-thirds of the population were voluntarily complying with mask-wearing, she said that figure needed to be higher as hospitals did not have the capacity for any increase in attendances.

On Monday there were 570 people on trolleys, the equivalent of one full acute hospital, said Ms Ní­ Sheaghdha.

The Health Service Executive will have to act, she said.“We have to look at anything that will assist [in lowering numbers].”

Elective care could not continue when there was no capacity, she added.

Hospital-acquired Covid infections had rapidly increased recently from 129 to 183 cases, said Ms Ní­ Sheaghdha. Hospitals were becoming “reservoirs” for Covid which was leading to cross-infection.

Prof O’Neill echoed the INMO’s call, saying mandatory mask-wearing on public transport and in any indoor situation should return. He had travelled on the Dart on Monday, and said: “My heart sank when I saw so many not wearing masks.”

Anything that can be done to reduce pressure on the health system should be done, he said.

The good news was that summer was coming and the current wave would pass, he said, however, there remained a risk of a more serious variant which could cause more serious illnesses. “We should prepare. Preparation is key. There will be another outbreak next winter.”

CMO advice

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told the Dáil the Government expected to see an increase in Covid-19 cases over the coming weeks.

He said the Government and the chief medical officer were continuing to encourage people to wear masks on public transport, in healthcare settings and other crowded indoor settings.

“This sub-lineage of Omicron is very infectious, it’s probably 30 per cent more infectious than the previous Omicron variant and for that reason we are expecting to see an increase in cases over the coming weeks,” he said.

“The good news is that in Denmark, which was the country to first experience this Omicron plus sub-lineage, they’re now seeing cases fall very substantially and we expect that to happen here in a few weeks’ time.”

In Northern Ireland, there were eight further deaths recorded of patients who previously tested positive for Covid-19, the North’s department of health said on Tuesday.

Another 2,899 confirmed cases of the virus had been notified in Northern Ireland the last 24-hour reporting period, and there were 519 Covid-19 patients in hospital, with seven in intensive care. – Additional reporting: AFP/PA