St Luke’s Hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny has the highest number of patients with Covid19 in the country.
34 people were being treated there last night, 14 of whom had been confirmed to have the virus within the past day, with a further two suspected cases.
It’s led to the facility closing all its out patient clinics and suspended all elective inpatient services.
Management made the announcement last evening that all Out Patient Department clinical services including radiology, physiotherapy and cardiac diagnostic services have been shut down until Tuesday.
All planned elective inpatient services are also suspended and the hospital says it’ll be contacting all affected patients to reschedule as quickly as possible.
Management had already this week announced delays in the Emergency Department and asked that people not turn up to the A&E unless it was a genuine emergency, and not if they had Covid symptoms.
Speaking to KCLR yesterday Consultant Cardiologist Michael Conway warned it’s a concern for medical staff that numbers will rise over Christmas and he’s asking people to do their best to stop the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, University Hospital Waterford was treating six patients last night, one of whom had their diagnosis within the past day while there are four suspected cases.
It’s as Kilkenny increased it’s numbers with Coronavirus by nine last evening – it remains in the top three highest in the country with an incidence rate of 145.1 per 100,000 population, ahead of the nation’s figure of 84.7.
Carlow’s rate is now at 93.1 after its cases jumped by eight.
No Room for Complacency
The chief medical officer insists there’s no room for complacency, despite Ireland having the lowest 14-day incidence rate of Covid-19 in the EU.
The country reached that level after 270 new cases were reported yesterday, along with five deaths.
Dr Tony Holohan says it’s important to keep up the progress we’ve achieved in recent weeks.
NPHET will meet this morning to discuss the spread of the virus, and plans to vaccinate the population in the new year.
Tony O’Brien, the former director-general of the HSE, says the drop in incidence rate is significant.
Vaccine
Hospitals across the UK are on stand-by to receive the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines.
800,000 doses of the Pfizer and BionTech jab are expected to arrive in Britain in the coming days.
Northern Ireland will get around 25,000 doses in the first stage, with nursing home residents and staff the first to get it.
England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van Tam, says hearing the regulators approve the drug was overwhelming.
