Digital Desk Staff
There are calls for public health authorities to release more information about new clusters of Covid-19, after another day of over a thousand new infections.
1,078 more people picked up the virus, and there were 66 additional deaths. There were 37 new cases in Waterford.
While Nphet does release figures around outbreak data, in terms of the daily figures there is no clear indication of where new cases come from.
Monaghan GP, Dr Ilona Duffy, says it is unfortunate that progress in driving down new infections has slowed down.
She says NPHET needs to release more information about where people are picking it up: “We need to understand where this is coming from and I think we need more guidance from public health about this.
“We need to know how this is happening and where this is happening. Is it through work? Is it still through community gatherings, through families or travel?
“By better understanding where the figures are coming from we can all learn from that. Then those people that may need to adapt their behaviour better will do so.”
It comes as a member of NPHET says there is concern some Covid-19 figures are levelling off and are “stubbornly stuck”.
There are 882 people with the virus being treated in hospital and 170 in ICU.
There was a slight increase in the number of patients with Covid-19 at University Hospital Waterford yesterday. It jumped from 45 on Friday night to 48 last night. 6 patients remained in intensive care.
Dr Mary Favier, former president of the Irish College of GPs and member of NPHET, says the numbers are reducing slowly: “The general figures are coming down, however there is some concern that they are slowing and plateauing.
“Other things like the positivity rate are stubbornly stuck at just over 5 per cent. I think people should be reassured that the numbers are coming down, and they will, it is just taking a long time.”
