Health officials will today discuss a sudden rise in coronavirus patients admitted to intensive care yesterday.
Eight people were admitted to ICU with the virus yesterday – the highest number of 24-hours since the middle of Spring.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan warned that COVID-19 is “still an extremely infectious disease which has the potential to lead to hospitalisation and even ICU admissions.”
He said the Irish people have managed to suppress the virus to the lowest levels in the EU in recent weeks but warned that now is not the time to sit back.
“If we do not continue to suppress the disease through the actions we have learned over recent months, we will very quickly see a surge in infections leading to an increase in hospitalisations, ICU admissions and, tragically, deaths,” he said.
“We are actively planning to begin vaccinating people in early 2021. We cannot afford to drop our guard now.”
227 more cases were confirmed last night and five further virus-related deaths were announced.
