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A further 1,631 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the State on Wednesday, while 503 Covid-19 patients were in hospital, with 101 in ICU.
The National Public Health Emergency Team has expressed concern about the increase in cases, hospitalisations and ICU admissions.
The fourth highest weekly number of Covid-19 cases during the pandemic were recorded last week.
The State’s deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said there were more than 14,000 new cases last week. Weekly case numbers were higher in only three other weeks of the 19-month pandemic, all in December and January during the third wave.
“The future trajectory is very uncertain,” said Dr Glynn.
One of the concerning trends the National Public Health Emergency Team had seen was the increase in the number of people being hospitalised and admitted to hospital intensive care units.
Dr Glynn said that there had been a sharp increase in ICU admissions in the past 10 days, rising to 101 as of this morning.
Some 42 per cent of the cases in ICU have been fully vaccinated but the 58 per cent who were unvaccinated show they are being “disproportionately represented.”
There have been an average of 48 hospital admissions each day over the past week.
About one in every two people who are hospitalised are aged 65 years and over, compared with one in every four in May.
Nphet reported a further 67 deaths in the past week, bringing the number of deaths ot 5,436.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the incidence of the virus is now “increasing at a concerning rate”.
“The 7 day moving average is now 2,043, up from 1,138 only three weeks ago. Incidence is increasing across all age groups, highest in those aged 5-12 years.
“A combination of higher levels of social contact, a move to socialisation indoors and a collective relaxing of basic public health behaviours combined has led to this surge of infection”.
He said the importance of “individual, institutional and sectoral attention to risk mitigation is crucial at this point”.
Dr Glynn said there had been an increase in cases across all counties but the numbers in Kerry, Waterford, Carlow and Longford were particularly high.
He told the Nphet briefing that there were on average of three to five deaths of people with Covid-19 a day, which were “very significant mortality figures.”
There have been 164 deaths reported so far for the month of September and 116 for October but these figures were rising for both months and will increase further.
“Those numbers will be significantly higher, unfortunately,” he said
Asked about risks from the crowds in the reopened nightclubs, Dr Holohan said that it would “be sensible” for people who attended nightclubs at the weekend to stay away from vulnerable people in the following days.
Prof Breda Smyth, director of public health for HSE West, said that the rise in cases among children aged between the ages of five and 12 years old was “concerning.”
“It is something we are keeping a close eye on,” she said.
Most cases among children of this age were as a result of mixing outside schools, she said.
On Halloween activities, Dr Glynn recommended that children “maybe don’t do it every day” over the weekend and not meet up with multiple groups of children over the weekend.
He encouraged parents not to let sick children circulate with other children.
“It may mean that some children are very disappointed,” he said.
Booster vaccines
Meanwhile, intensive care consultant Dr Catherine Motherway has repeated the warning that rising Covid cases will eventually mean increased hospitalisations and more patients requiring intensive care.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s News at One on Wednesday, the former president of the Intensive Care Society admitted that the health system was bracing itself for more hospitalisations.
She said she could see the pros and cons of booster shots for healthcare workers, but that was a decision for Niac.
Booster vaccines would be good as a transmission block and would give confidence to staff in hospitals which were crowded spaces, she added.
Separately Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that the Covid-19 vaccine booster programme may be offering a “glimmer of hope” with a slight fall in the number of cases of the virus among people over 80.
Mr Varadkar also said the Government is working on bringing in the use of vaccine passes for hospital visits, considering how to roll out 2 million rapid antigen tests and looking at offering a new testing regime for people who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons.
Concern has been raised in recent days about the effectiveness of vaccines in reducing transmission.
Mr Varadkar said the booster programme is open to people over 60 and added: “it’s fair to say that it will be expanded to other groups in the not too distant future.”
He said Israel’s booster programme has been successful in significantly reducing the number of Covid-19 cases there.
Mr Varadkar also said: “There is kind of a glimmer of hope I wouldn’t want to read too much into it at the moment. But if you look at the increase in cases, we’ve actually seen a levelling off or fall in the number of Covid cases attached to people over 80”.
Antigen tests
Mr Varadkar said a report by the expert group examining rapid antigen tests has advised that the best way to use them is as a “self-test” rather than testing thousands of people attending concerts, nightclubs or sports matches.
He said symptomatic people should get PCR tests and “Don’t trust antigen tests to tell you whether you’ve got Covid or not.”
Mr Varadkar did say that antigen tests are an “additional layer of protection” for people who are vaccinated with no symptoms that can give extra reassurance that a person is not infectious.
He said: “We have about 2 million tests in stock at the moment and we just need to make a decision now over the next couple of days as to how best to get them out to people, whether it’s through pharmacies, whether it’s through the post, there’s various different options.”
Mr Varadkar refused to be drawn on whether there is concern about the virus spreading over Christmas saying: “it’s not even Halloween yet. I don’t want to be worrying people about Christmas.”
He said there should be a good idea in the next two or three weeks on whether the number of cases have peaked or not and we’ll be able to make a better judgement then.
Mr Varadkar said Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly is working with the HSE on the possibility of using vaccine passes to allow hospital visits “on operationalising that and making it practical.”