Spike in critically ill Covid-19 patients in hospitals, including Portlaoise, leads to warning from Dr Tony Holohan

A spike in the number of people who have fallen critically ill with Covid-19 has led Ireland's Chief Medical Officer to warn about the dangers the virus poses.

As of 2 pm today, November 9, there were 224 Covid-19 patients hospitalised, of which 38 are in ICU. There were 14 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours. 

The number in ICU jumped overnight in a rate similar to the first wave in March and April. HSE figures show that a patient with a suspected infection is being treated at the ICU in Portlaoise hospital. A separate confirmed case was admitted to the Laois hospital over the weekend.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, outlined the detail and issued a reminder.

“Today we have seen 8 new admissions to ICU, the most in a 24 hour period since the springtime. Covid-19 is still an extremely infectious disease which has the potential to lead to hospitalisation and even ICU admissions.

“Ireland has managed to suppress COVID-19 to the lowest incidence levels in the EU in recent weeks. We have managed to keep up our 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,” he said.

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.