Colm Henry Claire Byrne Ireland Portugal county Delta Coronavirus Colm Henry Claire Byrne Ireland Portugal county Delta

HSE 'very concerned' over rise in numbers in hospital with Covid-19

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The Chief Clinical Officer of the HSE has said he is "very concerned" about the rise in the number of people in hospital, with or because of Covid-19.

It comes as 606 confirmed cases of Covid-19 were reported in the country's hospitals this morning. As of 8am there were 153 more people in hospital with Covid today than there were last Monday.

There were 453 people with confirmed cases in hospital on Monday, 13 June. Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Dr Colm Henry said the rise is largely driven by sub-types of the Omicron variant. "This sub-type enjoys what is called a growth advantage over previous sub-types and is now displacing it as the dominant variant here.

It's about 100% of cases in Portugal and now over 70% here." Dr Henry said that although it is much more transmissible, it does not seem to be more virulent or aggressive. "While hospitalisations are going up, we are seeing ICU numbers steady which is of some assurance," he said. "Those who previously had immunity from previous variants, be they Delta or otherwise, can get infected again but they are much less likely to get seriously ill." 'Not too late to get vaccinated' Dr Henry said there has been an increase in outbreaks in nursing home settings and residential care facilities but "nothing like we saw when we peaked in March following the surge of Omicron cases with earlier sub-variants but nevertheless, we have seen a rise at our operational clinical meeting this morning".

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