The Chief Medical Officer says the pattern of Covid19 is still trending upwards, despite a drop in the number of daily cases.
Two further deaths were recorded yesterday with 264 new cases, ten of which are in Kilkenny with nine more in Carlow.
The estimated national 14-day incidence of the virus in a number of counties is continuing to rise. Nationally it’s 83.4 but the local figures are again much higher with Kilkenny now on 199.5 and Carlow’s at 166.9.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan says the five-day moving average is still going up.
Hospitals
St Luke’s Hospital remains tops for the number of patients with Covid19.
There were 32 people being treated for it there last night, two of whom were confirmed within the previous day with three in critical care however there are no further suspected cases.
University Hospital Waterford’s treating 11 after one more recent admission, with two in critical care and five more thought to have the virus.
Vaccine
Over 14 million Covid19 vaccine doses will be delivered to Ireland at a cost of €112 million.
Cabinet will consider a report later on how it should be distributed, including the establishment of large, centralised vaccination centres.
A high-level Covid taskforce reported to the government last Friday and that will be published this afternoon following a cabinet meeting.
It will set out how vaccines will be secured, transported, stored and ultimately delivered.
The report says there will be five places it will be possible to get a vaccine.
Firstly in long-term residential care homes and healthcare settings like hospitals, in order to give the most vulnerable and frontline health workers first access.
Later next year large-scale vaccine sites will be set up in a similar manner to how large testing centres were put together.
Finally, in later stages, the vaccinations will be available from GPs and pharmacists.
While the Department of Health expects the first vaccinations to be done in the week after the European Medicines Agency approves a vaccine it will be much later into 2021 before any sort of wide-scale vaccination is achieved.
Ireland has advanced purchase orders with five companies which would provide 14.6 million doses at a cost of €112 million.
However, even once approved, not all of those doses will arrive in the country at once, which makes timelines very hard to predict.
Santa
Santa Claus will be able to deliver Christmas presents for children this year.
The Chief Medical Officer has revealed Santa is making appropriate plans for Christmas in the Covid19 pandemic.
Dr Tony Holohan says he will be taking all the public health advice into account on his travels.
Elsewhere
The hospitality industry in England is calling for more financial aid after some areas of the country were moved to the highest level of Covid-19 restrictions.
Thousands of venues will close to customers from tomorrow in London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire.
They’ll only be allowed to offer takeaway, delivery and click and collect services.
Emma McClarkin’s the chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association she says the industry is being wrongly targeted.
