Concern as number of Covid patients remains similar to peak of second wave

There is growing concern about the number of Covid-19 cases in the community and the rising hospital admissions, the head of the HSE has said.

Paul Reid said there has been a slight increase in the number of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus this weekend.

The 14-day incidence rate has been at 150 per 100,000 of the population for around a week.

Mr Reid told Newstalk On The Record programme that hospital numbers have been "stuck" over recent weeks and the number of patients with Covid-19 is the same as the peak in the second wave.

"We're at no way normal levels in our hospitals," Mr Reid added.

"In the last week when we saw the numbers stuck for the past few weeks, they had come down for the past five or six weeks very well.

"A slight increase again this weekend would give us concern around trends, particularly in line with some of the cases we're seeing come through this weekend, a slight rise in cases would give us concern."

He said he can sense the public's "frustration and anger" in recent days.

"All we can do is tell the facts of where things are at the minute and you would be concerned with what you see happening across Europe," he added.

"From the HSE's perspective, we still see a very high positivity rate."

GPs have also reported a rise in referrals for Covid-19 tests.

Meanwhile, HSE chief clinical officer Colm Henry also raised concerns about the "definite stagnation" in the number of Covid-19 cases.

"We are seeing a stubbornly high level of new cases identified every day, in the order of 500 or 600 cases," he told RTÉ News at One.

He also said the 14-day incidence is stagnated.

"That famous R value, the accumulative measurement of all individual interactions we all have, is stuck on 1, which means that the disease is stable or increasing.

"There are other signals of concern which sometimes anticipate deteriorations in some of these numbers, and one of those is an increase of referrals for GP testing.

"Another is close contact - very high positivity percentage of 24%.

"There is a lot of illness out there, it hasn't gone away and it's much higher than what it was in December.

"As long as we see that illness it will convert to hospital admissions."