The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has dropped slightly to 1,919 with 209 patients in intensive care, according to the latest HSE figures.
On Tuesday night, there were 27 intensive care beds available for adults and eight for children. Cork University Hospital has the highest number of Covid-19 patients, followed by University Hospital Limerick and St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.
A record 93 Covid-related deaths were reported on Tuesday and a further 2,001 confirmed cases of the disease.
All but three of the deaths reported by the National Public Health Emergency Team occurred in January. The median age of those who died was 82 years and the age range was 41 to 99 years.
Of the new cases, 701 were in Dublin, 204 in Cork, 102 in Wexford, 98 in Meath, 90 in Limerick with the remaining 806 spread across all other counties.
Colm Henry, HSE chief clinical officer, urged caution on Tuesday in interpreting the fall in daily infection numbers. He said many of the people in hospital now are “very ill” and about half are on ventilators.
This situation is likely to get worse over the coming days, he told RTÉ News. “We’re going to see a hospital system that’s never been so stretched and perhaps never in a more precarious position,” he said.
Meanwhile, a plan by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to speed up delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine was dealt a blow after the European Commission confirmed that doses cannot be delivered to member states until there is clearance from the European Medicines Agency.
Mr Donnelly said 140,000 are set to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by Sunday.
