Covid-19: Hospital cases rise 40% in a week

The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 has risen by almost 40 per cent in a week, amid signs of an increase in infections in the community.

There were 232 patients in hospital with the virus on Sunday, up from 167 the previous weekend, according to the Department of Health’s data tracker. The number of patients in ICU with Covid-19 has remained relatively stable, up to 21 on Sunday from 18 midweek.

At least half of these numbers are likely to be incidental cases, meaning the patient was admitted for another health reason and then diagnosed with Covid-19 in hospital. According to the HSE, Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Galway University Hospitals and University Hospital Limerick currently have the highest numbers of patients with the virus.

With 77 deaths notified in the week up to last Wednesday, the number of Covid-19 deaths has also been on the rise. However, this is largely due to late notification of deaths that occurred earlier in the pandemic.

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It is difficult to ascertain the level of infection in the community now since universal testing was discontinued. However, the proportion of positive PCR tests, an indicator of the spread of the disease, has been increasing again after a long period of decline. On Sunday, it stood at 16.7 per cent, up from 11.8 per cent on May 24th.

There was a slight increase in the number of cases confirmed by PCR test last week, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, though the number of outbreaks fell by seven on the previous week, to 22.

The rising infection numbers come as new data shows most people are exercising more than they were before the pandemic, and half the population is socialising as often or more.

Social activity has started to rise again after a brief plateau, with people visiting more locations and more people going into the workplace and using public transport.

The number of close contacts a person reports is significantly up on previous rounds of data, according to the latest social activity monitor from the Economic and Social Research Institute.

The data was collected between May 17th and 24th, a period when the first case of the BA. 4 variant were identified in Ireland.

The downward trend in mask-wearing and observing 2 metre social distancing continues, with half the population saying they rarely or never engage in such actions to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

However, levels of worry about Covid-19 are also down significantly, except insofar that people worry about the effects of Covid-19 on the economy and the wider global situation. One in three people remain highly worried; people who got Covid-19 during the pandemic exhibit lower levels of worry.

Approval ratings for the Government response to Covid-19 continue to rise, with 75 per cent saying it is appropriate.

Ten per cent of people say they are unwilling to take a booster vaccine against the virus, and one in five people are unwilling to take boosters regularly.