Ireland's Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said that he was "increasingly concerned" that the downward trend in new coronavirus cases here had not been maintained. We've passed the half-way mark in Ireland's 6-week pre-Christmas lockdown. We don't like to hear about Dr Tony being "increasingly concerned" at this stage. Images of the Christmas scoops in our favourite haunts seem to evaporate when Dr Tony's "concerned".
The five-day moving average of daily cases had increased from 350 on November 11th to 424 yesterday. 366 new Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday with a further 11 deaths. Although the numbers of Covid-19 patients in ICU has remained fairly stable over the past few weeks, Letterkenny General Hospital had no general or ICU beds free at all yesterday. The hospital is the busiest in the country with 41 coronavirus patients being treated there last night.
Tests show that more than a quarter of the people receiving a positive Covid-19 diagnosis are asymptomatic. 93% of those who've died from Covid-19 in Ireland had a serious underlying condition - chronic heart disease being the biggest factor.
While Dr Holohan voiced his concerns about the upward trend in coronavirus cases, there is some good news. The European Centre for Disease Control announced that only Finland and Iceland have a lower 14-day incidence of Covid-19 than Ireland. So we're doing something right.
