An additional 938 Covid-19 variants detected in Ireland

The Ministry of Health has confirmed an additional 938 cases of Covid-19 and 13 more deaths, but the director of health believes that a new variant of the coronavirus found in the United Kingdom now exists in Ireland.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Ireland currently has a total of 82,155 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 2,184 viral deaths.

The number of ICUs is 25, a decrease of 3 from yesterday. As of 2:00 pm today, 251 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized.

There have been 24 Covid-related hospitalizations in the last 24 hours. The Health Protection Surveillance Center also reports 11 confirmed cases.

Of today’s cases, 416 are male, 517 are female, and 65% are under 45. The median age is 36 years.

By region, 300 were positive in Dublin, 110 in Cork, 72 in Limerick, 68 in Donegal, 41 in Kildare, and the remaining 347 in the other 21 counties.

The current epidemiological situation is the most serious since March last year. The disease is widespread in all regions of the country and in all age groups.Always act as if you (or the person you contacted) are infected # COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) (# If there is no character limit, add parentheses when it first appears

— Dr. Ronan Glynn (@ronan_glynn) December 23, 2020

Test samples also suggest that a new variant of Covid-19 found in the United Kingdom exists in Ireland, but it is not only responsible for the rapid spread of the disease.

The potential for more infectious variants is based on preliminary data from sample selection last weekend.

In a statement, Dr. Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Institute of Virology and Reference, said: “Based on a selection of samples analyzed from the weekend, preliminary data suggest that new mutants from the UK are present in Ireland.

“But given the timeline of the samples analyzed, it seems that the new variants are not the only cause of the recent increase in the number of cases seen in Ireland.”

Later, at an NPHET briefing tonight, Dr. De Gascun said he was waiting to confirm that it was a mutant strain.

He states: “Based on British epidemiology, travel between the two countries, and the timeline, these results may reflect the presence of British variants.

“Given the timing, by itself cannot explain the significant increase in the number of cases we have found.”

Dr. De Gascun said the variants were found primarily in the eastern part of the country, based on a very small number. He said some tests suggested it was found in Dublin, but he couldn’t be more accurate than that.

He said he still doesn’t know if anyone who caught Covid-19 could already get a new stock, and the new stock identified in South Africa and the new stock identified in the UK have a common impact. It affects transmissibility by binding to respiratory cells that are said to share a mutation in.

The chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiology Modeling Advisory Group said the number of cases doubled within a week.

At the NPHET briefing, Professor Philip Nolan said the epidemiological situation had worsened 48 hours after the briefing on Monday.

He said the latest wave of the virus is rising as rapidly as the first wave in March.

At the NPHET briefing, Professor Philip Nolan said the “epidemiological situation” had worsened in the last 48 hours. | Read more: https://t.co/dFdUJRpUci pic.twitter.com/6oQsOy9kxS

-RTÉ News (@rtenews) December 23, 2020

Professor Nolan said that breeding rates are currently estimated at 1.5 to 1.8, and if this continues, a significant number of cases will occur in early January.

When the R number approaches 1, it will increase to 1,000 cases a week in the New Year and 1.2 cases in February, and it will reach 2,000 cases a day.

Professor Nolan said growth was virtually at its highest rate since March.

He said the 14-day incidence was 153 per 100,000 and “very worrisome” that the number of hospitalizations was increasing.

Professor Nolan said he had an average of 22 hospitalizations per day, “increasing from 14 stable hospitalizations per day for quite some weeks so far,” and 24 were hospitalized today.

He said the number of ICUs was stable and slowed to just under 30 last week, but on average there were two hospitalizations and the number of hospitalizations per day was increasing.

Professor Nolan said the number of deaths per day was fairly constant at 5-7 per day for more than 6 weeks.

He said the demand for tests has increased significantly, with 14,500 tests per day with a positive rate of over 5%.

Yesterday, 20,000 tests were done with a positive rate of 5.2%.

Professor Nolan said the five-day moving average is moving very rapidly. He said the number of cases continues to grow in Dublin and other countries, and Dublin’s growth rate may be slightly higher than in other parts of the country.

He said the virus was on the rise in all age groups, putting it at risk for the most vulnerable people, and said older people were protected during the October and November periods, but now it is. is not.

No restaurant outbreaks reported in the last 3 weeks-Tonight’s HPSC data pic.twitter.com/xLAmcuKOOS

— Fergal Bowers (@FergalBowers) December 23, 2020

Professor Nolan said the number of patients and staff in the medical setting is starting to increase, and so is the number of caregivers.

Prior to tomorrow’s pub and restaurant closures, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan said:

“Review your Christmas plans to limit social contact and take measures such as hand hygiene, physical distance, ventilation and face coverage if your home requires visitors.”

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