The majority of Covid positive inpatients at University Hospital Waterford are fully vaccinated.

That's according to the General Manager of the hospital, Grace Rothwell, who told Deise Today today (Tuesday) that of the 24 inpatients on the Pine Ward yesterday (Monday), 18 were fully vaccinated.

The rise in the number of covid patients on site in the past week has been described by Ms Rothwell as significant.

Currently, (Tuesday morning) there are 33 patients described as on a 'covid pathway', this means they are either confirmed to have the virus or awaiting a swab result.

Of those, two patients are being treated in ICU.

General Manager at UHW Grace Rothwell said the sizable increase was a concern;

"We now pretty much have a ward that is full of COVID positive or COVID pending patients. So 21 in the house this morning, two of which are in ICU and we have five inpatients awaiting swab results. So total on pathway then is 33. So it's a sizeable workload. It had been as low probably as, you know, three or four up to six or seven positives, but this is a significant increase now that has really happened over the last seven days."