Wednesday saw eight new admissions to hospital intensive care units (ICUs) for treatment of Covid-19, “the most in a 24-hour period since the spring time”, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has warned.
Five further deaths and 227 new Covid-19 cases were reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) on Wednesday.
This brings to 2,102 the number of Covid-19 related deaths in the State, and 74,900 the total number of confirmed cases.
As of 2pm on Wednesday, 224 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, of whom 38 were in ICU. There were 14 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Dr Holohan said Ireland had managed to suppress Covid-19 to the lowest incidence levels in the EU in recent weeks, as people kept up “safe” behaviours and worked to protect each other throughout the pandemic.
“If we do not continue to suppress the disease through the actions we have learned over recent months, we will very quickly see a surge in infections leading to an increase in hospitalisations, ICU admissions and, tragically, deaths.
“We are actively planning to begin vaccinating people in early 2021. We cannot afford to drop our guard now.”
Northern Ireland’s department of health recorded 12 more Covid-19 deaths, taking the North’s death toll to 1,085.
There were 483 new cases of coronavirus bringing the total since the outbreak of the pandemic in Northern Ireland to 56,278.
Currently there are 425 patients receiving Covid-19 treatment in Northern Ireland hospitals. Some 31 are in intensive care with 24 of them on ventilators.
Earlier members of the Oireachtas transport committee called for the relaxation of advice on non-essential travel around Christmas in order to support the aviation sector.
On Wednesday, the committee launched a report calling for an increased role for testing to allow for greater resumption of travel, including closer examination of cheaper antigen – or saliva – tests in airports.
Speaking at the launch of the report on Wednesday, Fianna Fáil TD for Clare Cathal Crowe said that the “mantra” of essential travel only “has to change”.
“This essential travel totally cripples our tourism sector, our travel agents who have been here also giving testimony, and it ensures that aviation stays on lockdown, shut down for many months to come.”
Sinn Féin transport spokesman Darren O’Rourke said getting testing and tracing right at airports would be a key part of relaxing restrictions. “And if we achieve that, I think there is real opportunity to expand the scale of foreign travel and reconsider the public health advice,” he said.
There was some relief announced on Wednesday for the live entertainment sector with musicians and performers set to benefit from an increase in earnings they will allowed to make before their pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) is affected.
Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys announced that PUP recipients can now earn up to €960 over an eight-week period and keep the weekly €350 social welfare payment.
Currently recipients can engage in limited self-employment and earn up to €480 over a four-week period and continue to maintain entitlement to PUP, a provision introduced on budget day.
Ms Humphreys accepted amendments from Sinn Féin and Independent Joan Collins to the Social Welfare Bill, which will allow musicians and others accept casual gigs without having their payment affected.
The Bill gives effect to provisions announced in the budget with a record €25.1 billion allocated to social protection, more than €4 billion extra than in last year’s budget.
The Bill also provides for keeping the state pension age at 66 pending the outcome of a newly established pensions commission which will report in a year.
Thanksgiving
Earlier on Wednesday, the Tánaiste said increased Covid-19 infections will be an “inevitable” consequence of people mixing more over Christmas, but case numbers alone will not dictate if the State needs a further period of severe restrictions in January.
Leo Varadkar said a rise in cases after Thanksgiving gatherings in the US and Canada gave some indication of the impact the festive period might have on the spread of the disease in Ireland.
“I think it is likely that we will see an increase in cases,” he said. “That is inevitable when people are mixing again. This isn’t just about foreign travel , it is about people mixing again over Christmas.”
Referring to the “Thanksgiving effect” in the US and Canada, the Fine Gael leader said “it is likely that cases will rise again” in Ireland in January.
“We’ve never ruled out the possibility that we would need to reintroduce restrictions for a short period in January,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
But Mr Varadkar said the need for or severity of any such restrictions would be decided at the time based on the rate of transmission and pressures on the health services and that people should not concentrate too much on the daily case numbers.
Projections from Nphet suggest that if the R number, which estimates how fast the disease is spreading, grows to 2.0 from December 22nd to January 6th, between 300 and 450 cases per day could be seen by New Year’s Day, and 800 to 1,200 per day by the second week of January.
An increase of this sort would see the State above the point at which Nphet estimates that a three-week intervention would be required to bring cases back under control.
The Tánaiste described the provision of the first vaccinations outside of trials in the North and Britain on Tuesday as “a day of hope”.
“I think with the vaccine, with mass testing, with increased knowledge of how we treat and prevent this disease, we will see the end of the pandemic in 2021.”
Ireland has made advance purchase agreements for six different vaccines, amounting to 8 million doses.
On Friday, a Government taskforce charged with overseeing a mass vaccination plan for the State will present its action plan, which will go before the Cabinet next Tuesday for approval.
