Coronavirus Ireland: 1,345 new Covid-19 cases confirmed with 141 in hospital

Hospitalisations continue to increase as there are now 141 coronavirus patients in hospital and 25 in ICU.

Speaking today, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “We are currently experiencing high incidence of Covid-19 across many counties. There has been a significant increase in hospitalization over the last fortnight."

This comes as the Irish Independent reported that Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, the minister in charge of enterprise, trade and employment, wants more accurate figures from Nphet on Covid-19 hospitalisations as the highly-infectious Delta variant is monitored.

Health experts have been told to exclude Covid-positive patients from daily case figures if they are not in hospital because of the viral infection.

Patients with appendicitis, for example, or an injury, but who happen to test positive for Covid-19, should be excluded from hospitalisation data, according to a Government letter sent to the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).

“There are essentially three categories and we should be able to quantify them,” the Tánaiste said.

“The first are those admitted with Covid and being treated for it; the second category are those admitted with something else but who got Covid in hospital and are now being treated for it, and the third are those admitted for something else, who were swabbed and found positive, but who are not being treated for it.”

Elimination of non-specific Covid cases from figures has been adopted in many cases, with the World Health Organisation offering no opposition to the non-categorisation of such patients.

Speaking today, deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said: “87pc of cases today are in those aged less than 45 years. If you are awaiting your vaccine or are awaiting your second dose, continue to protect yourself by following public health advice.

“Vaccines against Covid-19 are safe and effective. Please get vaccinated as soon as you have the opportunity to do so.”