The chief executive of the HSE has said the Covid-19 situation in the North serves as a “stark reminder” of how rapidly the scale of the crisis can intensify.
Paul Reid said the Northern Ireland figures demonstrated how a sustained level of cases can have a massive impact, in particular on the hospital system, in a very quick period of time.
“I think what we’re seeing in the north of Ireland over the last few days in particular gives us that stark reminder,” he added.
Case numbers continue to rise in Northern Ireland despite the latest two-week circuit-break in the region.
Health chiefs have cited low compliance with the regulations and guidance as a reason infections, hospital admissions and death rates remain relatively high.
Hospitals across the region are running over capacity.
Mr Reid said the HSE has not had a formal request from the health service north of the Border for significant resources or supports.
“If that request should come we will obviously consider whatever possible we can do,” he said.
On Thursday, there were 211 patients with Covid-19 in Irish hospitals, including 27 in ICU.
The HSE conducted more than 82,000 Covid-19 tests in the past seven days and its contact tracers had made more than 10,000 calls.
The number of people being swabbed for the virus had increased 30 per cent week on week.
The national 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population has increased slightly from last week to 88.
Pfizer vaccine
Mr Reid said HSE teams had been “working relentlessly” to prepare for the rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and that they would continue to do so over Christmas.
“The timing and the volume of the delivery is still not completely nailed down,” he said.
“We’re under intense and regular discussions with Pfizer/BioNTech in terms of that delivery.”
He said the first delivery of the vaccine will contain almost 4,750 doses, but he said “ideally” they would like more than that, and that was what was under negotiation.
Mr Reid urged people to keep their close contacts to the lowest possible level at Christmas and to keep house visits to the absolute minimum also, in a bid to limit the spread of Covid-19.
“We need everybody to be under the maximum level of watch over the Christmas period,” he said.
“As we look ahead to the next couple of weeks it’s going to be a very determining factor in what happens in our hospitals and health system overall in January.
“And our concern in January is that we will experience a high risk multiplier effect concerning three ingredients.”
These include an increasing level of cases, increased levels of positivity with a massive number of contacts, and the demands on the hospital system in the first weeks of January.
He said these factors represented “quite a dangerous mix” for the HSE.
