Wednesday night saw eight new admissions to intensive care units (ICU) with people who have Covid-19.
As the Irish Times reports, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan warned it is “the most in a 24-hour period since the spring time."
As well as there being 37 people in ICU currently, there are a further 203 people in hospital with the virus.
Yesterday five further deaths and 227 new Covid-19 cases were reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).
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," Holohan said.
It comes as yesterday 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.
