There currently 829 patients in hospital with Covid-19 today, with 9,070 new cases according to officials at the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
Of these numbers, 1,715 were recorded through PCR testing, and the remaining 7,355 were positive antigen test results logged on the HSE’s online portal.
As of 8.00 am this morning, 829 Covid-19 patients were in hospitals across the country, which is an increase of 26 on Tuesday’s numbers.
There are 51 patients receiving treatment in intensive care units today, which marks an unchanged figure from yesterday.
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Since Monday, there have been nearly 30,000 cases of Covid reported via PCR testing as well as Antigens online.
The exact number sits at 27,593, while hospital figures have fluctuated from 808 on Monday to 829 today.
Meanwhile, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said that Covid-19 is still having a big impact on emergency departments.
He said that in emergency departments, two care pathways are needed for Covid and non-Covid patients and a lot of space is taken up which would otherwise help.
Speaking at an event in Kildare, Mr Donnelly said that he was very conscious of the level of overcrowding in some emergency departments.
In response to these worrying statistics, the Irish Medical Organisation has said that overcrowding in hospitals is a persistent issue faced by Irish hospitals and is causing danger to patients.
Assistant director of policy and international affairs of the IMO, Vanessa Hetherington, spoke about the issue at an Oireachtas committee hearing.
She explained that there is no ‘quick fix’ to hospital overcrowding, but that in order to deal with the current problem, 5,000 extra hospital beds are needed and the critical care bed capacity needs to be upped to 550 beds.
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