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The Covid-19 Omicron variant is “running rife” in the community, HSE chief executive Paul Reid has said, and people who think they have the disease “most likely do”.
Mr Reid told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Tuesday that transmission of the variant appeared to be “rampant” with test positivity rates of some 50 per cent being recorded in recent days.
“The simple message is, if you think you have the virus, avoid gatherings with people,” he said.
Many people have reported problems booking a Covid-19 PCR test in recent days and Mr Reid said extra capacity was being introduced into the system.
He said weekly testing capacity was being increased to 300,000 and that up to 400,000 antigen tests were being sent out to close contacts.
“Please stick with us, yes there are delays. It is important to isolate especially with this volume of cases in the community.”
The testing service was, he said, working through cases on the basis of priority – those referred by GPs, close contacts and those with positive antigen test results.
Mr Reid said antigen testing was now “a core part of the process” but that ultimately PCR tests determined a person’s infection status.
Early stage
Some 50,000 cases have been reported over the last five days, but Mr Reid said Ireland was still at the early stage of the Omicron surge.
He said the numbers hospitalised with the disease were relatively stable at present – the total in the State stood at 462 on Monday – but he was concerned there could be a lag between confirmed cases and people being seriously ill which would increase pressures in time.
Evidence from GPs provided an early sign of hope that the variant was not leading to severe illness, he said, but this could be just among those who were vaccinated and had received their booster vaccine.
The number of health staff absent due to Covid-19 had fallen from around 6,000 to 4,000 but this could go in the wrong direction as the variant spreads, he said.
He said two million booster/third doses of the vaccine had been administered.
The vaccine registration portal for children aged five years to 11 years has now opened and those in high categories and with family members who had health problems would start receiving jabs from January 3rd, he said.
There was video information on the HSE website which allowed parents to show their children what was involved and what the experience would be like.