More than 77,000 Covid vaccines administered - HSE chief
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Ireland has administered 77,303 vaccines as of Wednesday, HSE chief executive Paul Reid said.
Of that figure, 69,378 were for frontline healthcare workers, with 7,925 for residents and staff in long-term care facilities.
Mr Reid said Ireland has received 152,100 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, along with 3,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, expects 700,000 people to be vaccinated between now and the end of March.
HSE's Director of Acute Services Liam Woods has said there are now 287 Covid patients in intensive care units across the country.
There are now 321 ICU beds open, he told RTÉ radio's News at One, with a surge capacity limit of up to 350. h
However, he warned: "The system is under significant pressure."
Mr Woods said there will be increased pressure in the coming days because of the lag between cases being identified and the stage at which some people require hospitalisation.
This has had a huge impact on hospitals and staff as the health service is running at a shortage of ten per cent of staff at present, he added. The lag will mean even more numbers this weekend, he warned.
Staff were "very stressed" and the situation was "very stressful", he said.
There had been a fall-off in the numbers attending emergency departments and Mr Woods urged anyone suffering symptoms that could be a strike or a heart attack to go to an
emergency department.
Meanwhile, some 1,838 patients with Covid-19 are currently being treated in Irish hospitals.
The figure is a new record during the pandemic and it has been rising since December.
Yesterday’s figure stood at 1,750.
The new number is now more than double the peak hospitalisations total seen during the first wave of the pandemic when there were 818 patients being treated in hospital last April.
The Tánaiste today warned that the outbreak of coronavirus cases in hospitals remains “precarious”.
Leo Varadkar said the struggle to contain the pandemic will continue over the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health confirmed that there had been 63 additional deaths related to Covid-19.
The Department also reported 3,569 additional Covid-19 cases.
The death toll from the virus currently stands at 2,460 while there have been 159,144 cases in total.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) is due to meet on Thursday, with rising hospitalisations set to be discussed.
Speaking last night, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan warned we had a long way to go.
“We are seeing some early signs of progress with daily cases numbers and positivity rates. We can take some hope in them, but we have a long, long way to go," he said.
“In the coming weeks ahead, we will need to draw upon our reserves of resilience from springtime as we can expect to see hospitalisations, admissions to ICU and mortality related to Covid-19 increase day on day.
“The best way that we can all support one another now is to stay apart. Sadly, what we are seeing now is a result of the very high daily confirmed case numbers we experienced for successive weeks.
“To ensure our hospitals and loved ones remain protected, and stay alive to receive the vaccine, please continue to follow public health advice and stay home.”
The INMO has stated that today’s Trolley Watch figures show 168 patients are waiting for beds today.
161 patients are waiting in the emergency department, while 7 are in wards elsewhere in the hospital.
University Hospital Limerick is the worst hit with 54 patients waiting on trolleys, followed by Cork University Hospital with 27.