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A further 1,631 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the State on Wednesday while 503 patients were in hospital, with 101 in intensive care.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has expressed concern about the increase in cases, hospitalisations and intensive care (ICU) admissions.
The fourth highest weekly number of infections during the pandemic were recorded last week.
State deputy chief medical officer Ronan Glynn said there were more than 14,000 new cases last week. Weekly numbers were higher in only three other weeks of the 19-month pandemic, all in December and January during the third wave. He told the Nphet briefing that there were on average three to five deaths of people with the virus daily, which were “very significant mortality figures”.
Dr Glynn added that “the future trajectory is very uncertain”.
There have been 164 deaths reported so far for the month of September and 116 for October. But these figures are rising for both months and are set to increase further.
“Those numbers will be significantly higher, unfortunately,” he said
One of the concerning trends Nphet had seen was the increase in people being hospitalised and admitted to ICU. 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 those in ICU have been vaccinated fully, but the 58 per cent who were unvaccinated show they are being “disproportionately represented”.
There have been an average of 48 hospital admissions daily over the past week.
About one in two who are hospitalised are aged 65 and over, compared with one in every four last May.
Nphet reported a further 67 deaths in the past week, bringing the number of fatalities to 5,436.
State chief medical officer Tony Holohan said the virus incidence is now “increasing at a concerning rate. The seven-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 five to 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.
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.
Director of public health for HSE West Prof Breda Smythsaid the rise in cases among children aged between the ages of five and 12 is 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 added.
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 Catherine Motherway has repeated the warning that rising infections 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 the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.
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 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 two 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 that “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 infections there.
Antigen tests
Mr Varadkar said a report by the 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 not to “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.
“We have about two 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.”