The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 5,590* confirmed cases of COVID-19.
As of 8am today, 505 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 117 are in ICU.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said:
The current high incidence of COVID-19 that Ireland is experiencing is driven by the Delta variant, which, coupled with the presence of the Omicron variant, means that the trajectory of the disease remains uncertain.
Booster vaccinations have been shown to produce very strong antibody responses and are likely to provide protection against severe disease, hospitalisation and death from most variants, including Delta and Omicron, at least in the short term.
In the over 75 age group, where people have been taking up the offer of a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in high numbers, we are seeing significant reductions in the incidence of disease. This is another positive development and further evidence that getting a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine helps to protect from the most severe effects of COVID-19.
Do not wait until after Christmas to receive your booster vaccine, the benefits of receiving your booster dose far outweigh any potential risks that may arise in the meantime. You will begin to receive the benefit of your booster protecting with seven days of receiving your third dose. This means that anybody who received their vaccine this week can be confident in the protection the booster will offer them as we move closer to the Christmas period.
As such, is it vital that all of us prioritise our booster appointments as soon as we receive them or make the time to attend a walk-in vaccination clinic if that option is available.
NOTES
Day to day variation in the reported number of cases of COVID-19 does not impact on key trend analysis. Analysing over a longer time period such as a week or 14 days, smooths out any variations introduced by processing times, and provides a more stable picture of the trend.
The number of notifications on CIDR will differ from other HSE data sources, such as positive SARS-CoV-2 results uploaded to the COVID Care Tracker, for several reasons including:
- Deduplication of repeat positive tests in the same person
- Differing upload schedules by the laboratories to CCT and CIDR – uploading of positive records on CIDR by laboratories is a more manual process than uploading to CCT. Uploading to CIDR typically occurs on the day or within one day of authorisation of the laboratory test result
- The time required for the two-step method of processing notifications on CIDR – this typically occurs either on the day or within one day of laboratories uploading positive records on CIDR
*Daily case numbers may change due to future data validation.
Help support Cork Safety Alerts by becoming a member – Click Here