DUBLIN (Reuters) – Health officials in Ireland, where a more infectious variant of the coronavirus first discovered in England has grown, said on Saturday they believed three cases of another new variant found in South Africa were contained.
Ireland is facing a COVID-19 increase that surpassed last year’s first wave. He confirmed the first cases of the more infectious variant found on Friday in South Africa in people who had traveled to Ireland from South Africa during the Christmas holidays.
This week, Ireland reported a growing presence of the variant first found in England. It was detected in 25% of positive cases that underwent additional tests in the week to January 3, compared to only 9% two weeks earlier.
“The British version worries us more just because of the amount of virus on the island and we know it is being transmitted to the community,” Cillian De Gascun, head of Ireland’s national virus lab, told RTE.
“The good thing about the South African version is that we know exactly where these cases came from, they were contained, controlled and tracked by contact and, as far as I know, there was no further transmission.”
The government announced on Wednesday the strictest blocking measures since the beginning of last Wednesday, warning that a “tsunami” of infections fueled by the UK variant and the relaxation of the borders before Christmas could overwhelm the health system.
The number of patients in Irish hospitals with COVID-19 increased by 12% in 24 hours on Saturday to 1,285, exceeding in recent days the peak of 881 set during the first wave of infections.
Fourteen more patients were admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). This brought the total number who received critical care to 119 and left only 27 of the 284 ICU beds in public hospitals in the country empty.
These hospitals can increase the capacity of safe intensive care to 375, the chief executive of the Irish Health Service (HSE) said this week. The HSE also reached an agreement to take over the private hospital beds for the ICU for hospitalizations in COVID-19.
Padraic Halpin’s report