Covid-19 patients critically ill in Portlaoise hospital as Laois infections double
Frontline staff are caring for patients who need intensive care after falling critically ill with Covid-19, according the latest HSE report.
Disease monitoring figures for Laois also reveal the incidence rate has spiked again in the county as the virus surges again in the wake of the lifting of restrictions and St Patrick's Day festivities.
The latest Covid-19 Daily Operations Update from the HSE's Acute Hospitals Performance Management and Improvement Unit outlines figures at 8pm on Tuesday, March 22.
It shows that there there were nine patients in the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise with Covid-19. Of these, two were being treated in the hospitals Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Laois hospital staff had one general bed and one ICU bed at their disposal at 10.30am on Tuesday morning.
Portlaoise's sister hospitals in Kildare and Offaly are under more pressure with the new surge in Covid-19 infections.
There were 36 people with the virus in the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore on Tuesday night though none were critically ill. Staff had no general beds available but there were three vacant ICU beds.
Meanwhile, there were 19 patients with Covid-19 in Naas General on Tuesday. None were in ICU. Staff had the Kildare hospital had no available ICU or general beds.
Latest infection rates for Laois based on PCR test results show that there were 179 cases of Covid-19 reported in Laois on Tuesday, March 2022.
This number is approximately 2.54% of all cases across all counties for the same day.
There have been 1,545 cases of COVID-19 in County Laois over the two weeks to March 22. The rate of COVID-19 per 100,000 people in Laois over the past 14 days is 1,824.1. This is more than double the rate of infection recorded on March 9 when it was 871.3 per 100 k.
The rate of infection per population peaked during the Omicron Phase at a massive 4,700 per 100k on January 31. It has been falling since until March 9 when cases began to rise again rapidly.
The total official number of cases in Laois up to March 22 is 23,752.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre was notified of 7,038 PCR-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on March 23. In addition, on Tuesday, March 22 14,060 people registered a positive antigen test through the HSE portal.
As of 8am Wednesday, 1,395 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of whom 55 are in ICU.
The World Health Organisation has said Ireland's latest surge could be linked to restrictions being lifted "brutally".