Over 300 affected by vomiting bug at Dublin hospital

Appeal:Some 300 cases of the winter vomiting bug were recorded at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, in the past month, .

While the number of current cases has been reduced significantly, the hospital has renewed its appeal for visitors to stay away.

Thirteen people at the hospital are still displaying symptoms of norovirus, a spokesman said. In mid-March, 57 people at the hospital concurrently had the virus.

“While the peak of the outbreak does now appear to have passed, visitor restrictions are still necessary,” a hospital spokesman said yesterday.

Sixty staff and more than 240 patients have have been affected since the outbreak on March 9th.

The public’s heeding of visitor restrictions in recent weeks had “played an important role in our management of this outbreak”, the spokesman added.

He appealed to the public to not to visit the hospital unnecessarily over Easter.