Covid-19: Hospitalisations rise as one in four test positive

One in four people going for Covid-19 testing are returning a positive result, as hospitalisations of patients with the virus continue to rise.

The positivity rate for PCR tests over the past seven days was 25.4 per cent on Monday, the highest since mid-April.

HSE chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry expressed concern about the rise in patients hospitalised with Covid-19, which he attributed to a surge in new, more transmissible subvariants of the virus.

The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 rose to 453 on Monday, up 56 on the previous day. This compares with just 167 patients with Covid-19 in hospital on May 28th.

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There has been no significant increase in Covid-19 patient numbers in intensive care. There were 22 ICU patients on Monday, down two on the previous day.

Covid-19 continues to be detected in almost all waste-water surveillance in Irish waters. Last week the viral load was stable in 34 locations in which the virus was detected, while 27 locations experienced decreases and six had increases.

University Hospital Limerick had the most Covid-19 patients on Sunday evening, at 54, followed by St Vincent’s in Dublin, with 40. Every hospital in the State has at least one patient with the virus.

Dr Henry said genome sequencing has shown an increase in the BA.4 and BA.5 subtypes, which are more transmissible than previous subtypes of the Omicron variant, and are becoming more widespread due to their ability to escape immunity.

While there is no indication the new subtypes are any more virulent, reinfections are becoming more common, he added.

“This is all the more reason to encourage people over 65, and over 12 if immunocompromised, to avail of an additional booster,” he said.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration said Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared to be safe for small children.

Officials meet on Wednesday to decide whether to approve Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines for young children, the only age-group not yet eligible for Covid-19 vaccination in the US. Pfizer’s application is for children aged between six months and four years, while Moderna’s is for six months to five years.