If you’re a Covid-19 patient in ICU in Ireland you are more than twice as likely to survive and recover as a Covid patient in the UK is. According to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), up to July, mortality in the Republic of Ireland was 17% for coronavirus patients in ICU. This compares to an extraordinarily high mortality rate of 40.4% in the UK.
The high death rate amongst UK coronavirus patients in the UK is likely down to the enormous strain put on the health system there due to lack of the public health restrictions we had here.
The mortality rate was also significantly higher, at 24.8%, in Northern Ireland.
Ireland is now one of only two countries in Europe – Finland is the other one – to have falling numbers of new cases. Dr Tony Holohan singled out Ireland’s young people for particular praise for their efforts in supressing the virus. There has been a “dramatic reduction” in the number of cases in the 19-24-year-old age group, the Chief Medical Officer said. The incidence of Covid-19 in that age group has dropped from 450 per 100,000 to 150 per 100,000 in the past two weeks.
Criticised by some for their lax attitude to coronavirus restrictions, it seems young people are the driving force behind the welcome reduction in numbers.
