The Acting Chief Medical Officer has advised people to meet outdoors if possible amid the current rise in Covid-19 cases.
Covid-19 cases have increased by 36% in the past week, according to PCR data. There is a 21% increase in positive antigen tests uploaded to the HSE portal, with 17,640 cases recorded.
The national incidence rate is up 26% to 495 per 100,000.
Professor Breda Smyth, Ireland’s Acting Chief Medical Officer said Covid-19 hospitalisations have increased alongside infections, worsened by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron variants.
Letterkenny University Hospital currently has Ireland’s second-highest number of Covid-19 patients. Sixty-one patients with the virus were recorded on-site last night.
Prof Smyth said the majority of hospitalised cases are in the older population. She urged people to take up the option of a second booster.
In a letter to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, Prof Smyth said: “It is particularly important that eligible groups for primary and booster doses (both first and second) continue to be encouraged to avail of vaccination in order to
confer optimal protection against the risk of severe disease as well as against other potential long term consequences of infection. Current hospitalisation data indicates that an increasing proportion
of cases hospitalised for COVID-19 are aged 65 years and older.”
