Over 1,000 patients in hospital with Covid for first time since April

Muireann Duffy

The number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 has increased to the highest level since April as Ireland finds itself in another wave of infections.

On Monday morning, data from the HSE showed there were 1,055 people in hospital with the virus, up from 987 on Sunday.

The last time Covid hospitalisations were over the 1,000-mark was on April 12th, when there were 1,004 people in hospital with the virus.

Figures on the number of Covid patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) have not yet been updated, however, on Sunday morning, there were 38 such patients.

The figures come as the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) approved the rollout of a second Covid booster shot for all people over 60 and the medically vulnerable.

The ECDC's director, Andrea Ammon, warned they were seeing an increasing trend of hospital and ICU Covid admissions across Europe, "mainly driven by the BA.5 sublineage" of the Omicron variant.

"This signals the start of a new, widespread Covid-19 wave across the European Union," she added.

Amid concerns that the original Covid vaccines are not offering as much protection against new variants, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is currently assessing two variant-adapted shots which are expected to be approved by September.