‘Positive news’: Covid-19 hospitalisations fall overnight

The number of people in hospital being treated for Covid-19 has fallen overnight.

New figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) released yesterday evening (June 9) revealed that as of midnight June 8 there was a total of 110 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in hospital.

But in a tweet posted early this morning, Minister for Health Simon Harris said the number of hospitalisations due to the virus had since been reduced by five.

“Some positive news to start the day,” Harris wrote.

“The number of patients with #Covid19 in hospital has fallen again. Down to 105. We are making real progress. Important message for us all: keep up the public health measures & this number will keep falling & more lives will be saved.”

The latest HPSC data also revealed that another nine people diagnosed with the disease have died, bringing the total amount of Covid-19-related deaths in Ireland to 1,691.

There have now been 25,215 confirmed cases of the disease after nine more positive tests were recorded, the HPSC added.

Commenting on the latest statistics, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Tony Holohan, said last night in a statement that although the situation continued to improve in both Ireland and across Europe, the World Health Organization has advised now was not the time to ‘take the foot off the pedal’.

“Countries need to continue to work hard to avoid complacency and promote solidarity,” he added.

It has also emerged that as of midnight June 8, some 367,780 tests have been conducted.

Over the past week, 19,364 tests were performed; of these 185 tests were positive, giving a positivity rate of 1 per cent.

Deputy CMO Dr Ronan Glynn said contact tracing and public health surveillance measures were essential elements in the battle against Covid-19.

“Public health doctors and their teams have quietly undertaken an extraordinary effort to contact trace over 25,000 Covid-19 cases to date,” he added.

“Going forward, we can all assist them in their work by limiting the number of people we meet and keeping a log of the people we interact with every day.”

The HPSC also confirmed that as of midnight June 7, when there were 25,206 cases, 57 per cent of those with the disease were female and 43 per cent were male.

The median age of confirmed cases was 48 years, 3,331 cases (13%) have been hospitalised, and 8,087 cases were associated with healthcare workers.

Of the hospitalised, 413 cases have been admitted to intensive care.

Dublin has the highest number of cases at 12,159 (48% of all cases) followed by Cork with 1,529 cases (6%) and then Kildare with 1,424 cases (6%).

For those whom transmission status was known, community transmission accounted for 38 per cent, close contact for 59 per cent, travel abroad for 2 per cent.

peter.doyle@imt.ie