Easter Sunday Covid-19 numbers shows Portlaoise hospital back in single figures but little spare bed availability

Covid-19 cases at Portlaoise hospital have dipped back into single figure territory but the hospital appears to be stuck on low bed numbers.

The number of people with Covid-19 at Portlaoise hospital doubled after St Patrick's Day. From having no patients over the first weekend in March, Frontline staff had 10 people who required inpatient care having contracted the coronavirus on the weekend after March 17. 

The HSE’s Covid-19 Daily Operations Updates show that the number of Covid-19 patients in the Laois hospital by 8 pm on Easter Sunday, April 4 had fallen to eight. There were no critically ill patients in the hospital's ICU by 8pm on Sunday. The hospital had no suspect case at the end of the weekend.

The bed situation remains an issue. There were two general beds available by Sunday evening. There was no available ICU bed at the hospital by 8 pm. This situation has been faced through March.

Portlaoise is part of the Dubin Midland Hospital Group which includes Tullamore, Naas, St James's and Tallaght in Dublin. All have Covid-19 patients.

The report shows that there were 13 confirmed cases at the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore. The Offaly hospital had no suspect cases. Staff were treating three critically ill Covid-19 patients going into Easter Monday. 

There were just 13 general beds and one ICU bed available at the Offaly hospital on Sunday night.

Offaly continues to have the highest incidence of the virus in Ireland at present.

Naas General Hospital had 14 people who were sick with the virus. There were three suspected cases but nobody was critically ill in ICU.

The Kildare hospital had 22 general care beds and one ICU bed was available on Sunday. 

Tallaght and St James's hospitals are in the same group.

There were 27 confirmed and four suspected cases at Tallaght on Sunday night. The Dublin hospital had ten general beds and six ICU beds available. There were four critically ill Covid patients in ICU.

St James's had 26 confirmed and 50 suspected cases by 8 pm April 4. It had 38 general beds and three ICU beds available going into Monday. There were nine confirmed and one suspected case in its ICU. 

Nationally, there were 250 people in hospitals by 8 pm on Easter Sunday. There were 120 suspected in hospitals with 8 people admitted with the virus in the previous 24 hours. 

There were 62 critically ill people in hospitals on April 4 down from 95 on March 14. Of these, six are suspected cases. Of the total, 39 of home two are suspected. 

Unfortunately, there was two Covid-19 related ICU death on Easter Sunday.