The number of Covid patients in public hospitals dropped to 111 last night – the lowest figure since last September.
The number has halved in the space of a month, from 220 on April 7th.
The ICU figure’s also at its lowest this year, falling to 34 yesterday.
It’s as the local St Luke’s Hospital is Covid-free this morning for the second day running.
Latest figures (as of 8pm last night, Friday) show there are also no suspected cases at the general hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny.
Former HSE director-general, Tony O’Brien, says there may be only 60 Covid patients in hospitals nationwide in the next month or two.
“I think once we get the bulk of the over 40’s vaccinated, we could expect up to a further halving of the hospitalisation figure” he explained. “Against that, we’re still seeing daily numbers of new Covid cases in excess of 400. That’s a little bit troubling. I would hope that would come down too, and then we will see the hospital figures fall rather dramatically. Hopefully we’ll get to a stage towards the end of the summer where very few people will end up in hospital.”
