Colm Henry, the Chief Clinical Officer, of the HSE is calling on people eligible for a Covid booster vaccine to get it as the number of people in hospital with Covid increases.
There are 905 people in hospital with or because of Covid19 – 35 of these people are in ICU.
The HSE has confirmed that half of the 905 cases were admitted for other reasons and subsequently tested positive.
In the last 7 days over 41,000 PCR lab tests have been completed and these show a positivity rate of 38%.
1,048 cases in county Tipperary have been confirmed in the last 14 days.
The county now has the second highest reported rate of infection at 657 cases per 100,000 of population.
Only counties Laois and Limerick are higher with Laois holding the top spot with a rate of 736 cases per 100,000 of population.
The HSE expects that case numbers will level off in a week or two. It will continue to monitor the presentation of coved like symptoms in GP surgeries and testing of waste water to identify highly infected areas.
The HSE is encouraging older people and those with underlying health conditions to avail of vaccines and boosters as the impact of the vaccine can reduce over time and the new strains of the virus are circulating.
