The small number of unvaccinated people is having a “highly disproportionate” effect on hospitals, according to the HSE.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid outlined the vaccination status of those in hospital with the virus, saying it’s putting a strain on the system: ”Those who are unvaccinated are highly disproportionately represented in our hospitals. If you just the current position in relation to that, 48% of the covid patients in hospital now aren’t fully vaccinated. 50% of covid patients in ICU now have had no vaccination at all and 25 are partially vaccinated.”
He added: “The vast majority of people with Covid in our hospitals are adults, primarily over the age of 18, and if you just stand back and assess, just about 6.5% of the adult population aren’t now fully vaccinated, so 93.5% of the adult population are fully vaccinated, so those who are unvaccinated are highly disproportionately represented in our hospitals.”
The HSE says it will have capacity for 245,000 Covid tests a week by the end of this month.
Paul Reid said: “Last week alone, we completed over 214,000 vaccines in total across the programmes and, as of yesterday evening, there are now 880,000 boosters and third doses administered over the past few weeks.”
He added: “We’re also seeing continued presentation of people for their first and second doses. Last week alone, we completed just about 10,000 dose ones and over 10,000 dose twos in the population.”
