St Luke’s hospital has 44 confirmed cases of covid-19 – that’s up from 34 on Friday.
Latest HSE figures up to 8pm on Saturday night show 9 new cases in the previous 24 hours at the local hospital.
There is one patient with the virus in ICU.
Outpatient clinics at St Luke’s are cancelled again this week with the exception of antenatal and oncology services.
Nationally over a thousand people with Covid are in hospital for the first time since last February.
There are 1,004 patients being treated – an increase of 20 since yesterday.
82 people with the virus are in intensive care – down one.
It comes as the Irish Medical Organisation says the health service is under huge pressure due to the number off staff off sick with Covid.
Spokesperson, Anne Dee, says the staff shortages urgently need to be addressed:
“This is a really good time to maybe consider having more robust staffing levels, especially for clinical people, for medical and nursing but especially for medical staff. Our union represents doctors and really we’ve seen people are tired, they’re so worn out. Really just weary from covid”
