Over 50 patients were infected by Covid-19 and 14 tragically died over a six-week period in just one Dublin hospital, it has been revealed.
This is information that has been discovered in a new genome study by a group of Irish scientists conducted during the start of the frightening pandemic.
The UCD study tracked the genome sequences of cases of Covid-19 which were picked up in the Dublin hospital in a bid to track its "transmission route".
It is understood that in most cases, patients actually caught the virus from health care workers according to the report.
And shockingly, one elderly patient was also said to have "wandered" into the corridor and was identified as a "super spreader".
Speaking about the "super spreader", the study says: "[The patient] would characteristically shout directly into faces of staff members passing by."
Also, the study claims that workers often would not wear masks when communicating with colleagues.
It added: "Upon questioning, staff reported that surgical masks were frequently removed in the nurses’ station when communicating with each other and replaced for patient interactions."
During that six-week period, there was as many as six different clusters of the virus in the capital hospital.
The conclusion from the pioneering Irish study found that 52 patients were infected with Covid-19 in the Dublin hospital between March 23 and May 7 with 14 dying from coronavirus complications.
The full study, Whole-genome sequencing to track SARS-CoV-2 transmission in nosocomial outbreaks, which was completed by scientists at UCD, can be found here.
