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Cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 discovered in Ireland have been contained, Dr Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory, has said
“They have been contained, they have been controlled, they have been contact traced, and to the best of my knowledge at this stage, there was no onward transmission,” he told RTÉ Radio One’s Saturday with Katie Hannon.
However, Dr de Gascun said the variant remains a concern because its mutations could impact on how the vaccines work, but he added that this was a “theoretical risk at this point in time”.
Dr de Gascun, a member of Nphet, urged anyone with “travel exposure” to South Africa in the last 28 days to “come forward and make themselves known”.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) announced on Friday thaat three f cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 have been detected for the first time in Ireland. All were associated with recent travel. Nphet appealed for healthcare workers who travelled from South Africa to self-isolate for 14 days.
The South African strain emerged in August in South Africa’s eastern Cape region, before spreading to other provinces as infections accelerated in recent weeks.
The new variant has been linked to the surge in Covid cases in South Africa and health experts fear that it is not only more infectious than previous forms of the virus but could make some vaccines less effective.
Almost 1,300 people with Covid-19 are being treated in hospital this weekend with the head of the HSE saying this number will continue to rise.
Latest figures show 114 patients admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours with coronavirus, bringing the total number to 1,285. Another 14 have been admitted to intensive care units, bringing the total most severely ill with the virus to 119.
Paul Reid, chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), said those figures will continue to surge.
“Saving lives and protecting more people (from) getting sick is our priority. But, in time, the huge sacrifices everyone is making will work.”
Minister of State for Health Mary Butler described the trajectory of infections as “extremely serious”.
“The current situation is extremely serious. Every day we see figures increasing at an exponential rate and they are always worse than the previous day. But everything that can possibly be done is being done,” she said.
Latest data from the Government also shows more than one in five people getting tested for Covid 19 are positive. Of 174,126 tests completed in the last seven days, some 22.4 per cent were found to have the virus.
The number of positive cases continues to hit record levels, with 8,248 new cases reported on Friday night, and a further 20 deaths recorded. One official said he expected to see several days of “significant hospital admissions” but that the situation should “ease off” after that.
Health sources said that hospitals were preparing to use ventilators outside intensive care units if the ICUs reach capacity in the next week. The health service has about 400 ICU beds but has access to about 1,800 ventilators.
Ministers and senior officials say next week will see the most severe test of the health service since the pandemic began as a proportion of the very high numbers of positive cases reported since Christmas will become seriously ill and require hospital care.“Next week is it,” one minister said.
There are some signs that the post-Christmas surge of infections may be abating, with the positivity rate of tests and GP referrals showing signs of easing off.
But there was further worry last night when the Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan confirmed that three cases of the South African variant of the virus had been detected in Ireland.