Covid-19: Record number of confirmed cases in ICUs as hospitalisations rise
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There are 1,700 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals in Ireland, along with a record number of people in ICUs.
The figure is up on Monday when 1,575 people with the virus were being treated in hospitals.
The figure represents a record number of people with the disease in hospitals for the seventh day in a row.
There have been 158 admissions to hospital for people with the virus in the last 24 hours.
As of 11am, the number of patients in ICU with Covid-19 is now at 158, a new record.
It has now surpassed the peak number seen in the first wave, when on April 10 and 11 there were 155 people in critical care.
HSE chief Paul Ried has urged people to stay at home following the latest figures.
“Nobody wants more people sick with Covid-19,“ he wrote on Twitter earlier this morning.
“1,700 patients now in hospital and 143 in ICU would swap with any of us.
"The big ask of everyone is to stay at home and help get our hospitals and nursing homes back to safer levels.
“Our healthcare teams ask just this of us.”
Last night, the HSE revealed that there were 13 hospitals around the country with no more critical care beds available.
The figures showed that there were only 30 ICU beds available nationally.
On Monday, 4,929 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed along with eight additional deaths.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the situation in hospitals was still worsening.
“While we are seeing the first glimmer of hope in respect of our daily case figures and positivity rates, the situation in hospitals and ICUs around the country continues to worsen day on day.
“We know that hospitalisations occur some weeks after a confirmed case is notified, and mortality after that again.
“That means we are unfortunately set for a period of time where the situation in our hospitals gets worse before it gets better.
“The best way forward now is for all of us to stay at home.
“Staying at home and cutting your contacts right down to only those in your immediate household is the one vital way we will protect our healthcare system as it struggles with the burdens brought on by this surge in Covid-19 infections," Dr Holohan said.
The news comes after figures revealed Ireland has the world’s highest incidence of confirmed new Covid-19 cases per million people.
In the last week, Ireland has had 10,100 confirmed cases of coronavirus per million people, according to data from Johns Hopkins University in the US.
Officials said the number of people in hospital with the virus will peak at 2,200 to 2,500 people over the next two weeks, with an estimated 200 to 400 people in ICU.
Elsewhere, the latest Trolley Watch figures from the INMO has shown that there are 201 patients waiting for beds in Irish hospitals this morning.
185 patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 16 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.
Two of the worst-hit are Munster hospitals, with 41 patients waiting on trolleys in University Hospital Limerick and 31 in Cork University Hospital.