'Please help' — HSE appeal as 7,000 healthcare workers absent from Covid frontline

The chief operations officer also admitted that health workers who were close contacts were being called back to work before completing their 14 days self-isolation. This was being used as “a last resort”.

Staff who were close contacts but had no symptoms were tested and then closely monitored by occupational health, she said.

Every member of staff was needed on duty and to anyone who could help frontline workers go to work, she said “please help” when asked about the shortage of child care. 

Staff who were facing such difficulties were being facilitated where possible, she added.

The level of absenteeism was challenging, she added.

Ms O’Connor said the health service was very dependent on being able to move people out of hospital back to their home or into another facility. 

All were tested on discharge, but if they tested positive, options outside of hospitals had to be utilised as it was not an option to keep everyone in hospitals.

Meanwhile, as 46 new Covid-19 deaths were confirmed, the chief medical officer (CMO) warned the high mortality rate is set to continue.

The grim total, the highest reported in one day since April, comes as a Cork infectious diseases consultant warned hospital overcrowding will also continue as patients infected over Christmas will be admitted later this month.

The number of deaths from Covid-19 now stands at 2,397 and there have been 155,591 cases of the virus. Of the latest deaths, 44 occurred in January and two in December.

CMO Dr Tony Holohan said: “Unfortunately, due to the unsustainably high level of Covid-19 infection we have experienced as a country over the past few weeks, sadly these figures are likely to continue for the next period of time.

What we can do today, out of respect of those who have lost their lives and those currently in hospital or ICU — and those caring for them — is to hold firm and stay home.

There were 1,700 patients in hospital with Covid-19 yesterday afternoon, almost double the 861 on January 5 and significantly higher than April peak of 881.

This update from the Government’s Covid-19 datahub shows the combined impact of increased socialising over Christmas and the more transmissible variant of the virus.

As of yesterday afternoon, there were 159 people in ICU, higher than at the peak in April. On the wards, 158 new patients were admitted in 24-hours while 88 were discharged.

The Infectious Diseases Society’s Dr Arthur Jackson said they are treating patients in their 20s as well as older people.

“The worst of the sickness lags behind the admission, people get the sickest at the end of their second week," he said. 

"So if we have thousands more cases today, we would expect a sizable number of them to be at their sickest in two weeks.” 

A consultant in infectious diseases at Cork University Hospital and the Mercy Hospital, he said patients can spend up to 10 days in hospital and longer depending on how ill they are.

“Our bed capacity is going down. Our priority and that of hospitals everywhere is to care for the Covid patients, but we need to also keep the hospital safe for non-Covid patients,” he said.

Dr Jackson called on the public to stay at home unless they must go out to work.

In general the fear level is not where it should be. The only way to settle this, unfortunately, is by lockdown and not mingling even with your close family.

A HSE update showed 368 ordinary hospital beds empty with three hospitals including University Hospital Kerry without a free bed on Monday morning.

By Monday evening, 237 of the 301 adult ICU beds were occupied.

Staff at CUH had 140 Covid-19 patients, the largest number in a single hospital. University Hospital Limerick had 124, and University Hospital Kerry 24 confirmed cases.

New Health Protection Surveillance Centre figures yesterday showed 226 new outbreaks notified to January 9, including 52 new nursing home outbreaks.

There are still eight open outbreaks linked to pubs and 14 to restaurants or cafes, meaning links are still being traced back to when they were open. There are 13 open outbreaks linked to religious ceremonies and 26 to workplaces, including in food production.