The Health Service Executive has reported a marginal decrease in the number of patients in hospitals with Covid-19.
There were 667 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in hospitals around the country, as of 8am.
This is a reduction of three on yesterday’s figure of 670.
The number of inpatients with Covid-19 peaked three days ago, when it surged to 737 on 28 December.
The latest data also showed that as of 11.30am there were 28 patients in intensive care units around the country, one fewer than yesterday, and down ten from Thursday’s figures.
However, there are still almost three times as many confirmed cases in intensive care as there were a fortnight ago.
Health officials are continuing to tackle a surge in winter viruses, which is putting the public health system under strain.
The HSE says that all resources are being used to deal with emergency department pressures.
The Private Hospitals Association said last night that it is happy to again assist the State in managing the serious capacity issues currently facing the public system.
Meanwhile, a Monaghan GP has warned that “every working day” hospitals in the region are telling her they “have no space”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Dearbhail McDonald, Dr Illona Duffy said she feels “it is as bad as we’ve ever seen it” and that “it has been a busy December”.
“Every single day for the last two weeks, every working day, we’ve received faxes and emails from hospitals in the region basically saying we have no space, ‘there’s a flu and Covid crisis in the hospital, we’d ask you not to send patients in’. And I think GPS are adhering to that. None of us want to send a patient into a crowed A&E and patients don’t want to go – that’s also a bit of a battle that we’re finding.”
Dr Duffy added “if you need hospital, you need hospital but again it is a matter of trying to ensure that the people who are in hospital are right people there”.
Dr Duffy said GPs cannot help with the bed crisis in hospitals and that “those who are on trolleys are people who require admission to hospital and people who are really sick, so seeing us isn’t going to change that”.
However she said GPs can administer some treatments that “could potentially prevent them ending up in hospital”.
“If we know that you are an elderly person – I’m talking about people over the age of 75 – who get Covid, even if they are vaccinated, we have access to Paxlovid which is an antiviral agent, and that may prevent those people ending up in hospital. Similarly, if we think you’ve influenza there are antiviral treatments we can use for those who are high risk.”
