Hospitals 'under significant pressure' as 133 Covid-19 related patients treated in intensive care
The president of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland has said that there are 133 patients being treated in intensive care units around the country today.
Dr Catherine Motherway said the volume of ICU patients has put the units "under significant pressure", but hospitals were managing to deal with it.
She explained that 107 of the patients have Covid-19 and are on ventilators while the remaining 26 are suspected cases being treated in intensive care.
Dr Motherway told the Irish Times: “The number of cases are rising and there is no doubt that the hospitals in the east are being hit first, as we expected, and are under significant pressure.”
She also explained that some hospitals are transferring patients to other hospitals within its group that have room to take them, but outlined how the public can help control the flow of patients.
She told the Seán O’Rourke Show on RTÉ Radio One: “At the moment they are coping with the numbers but there is no doubt that we’re under significant pressure and we’re quite concerned that we will be able to control the surge.
"Now we can’t control it, the people that are listening to you and me, can control it by staying at home.”
Health officials are meeting today to consider possible further travel restrictions and measures in nursing homes to tackle the spread of the coronavirus.
New figures show we are flattening the curve with the infection daily growth rate, halving from 33% to 15%.
However, Professor Phillip Nolan from the Modelling Advisory Group says we cannot become complacent.
“So the message is, there’s been a very significant impact in what we’ve done to date.
“We need to see the impact of the measures that were applied last Friday to ensure that they are enough to control the disease.
“The message to the public is to maintain those efforts.”
The latest restrictions in operation since Friday, March 27 mandate that everyone should stay at home, only leaving to:
- Shop for essential food and household goods;
- Attend medical appointments, collect medicine or other health products;
- Care for children, older people or other vulnerable people - this excludes social family visits;
- Exercise outdoors - within 2kms of your home and only with members of your own household, keeping 2 metres distance between you and other people
- Travel to work if you provide an essential service - be sure to practice social distancing
