This winter will be harder than ever before, the HSE’s top doctor has warned.
CEO Paul Reid said that while he has “confidence and hope” about the next few months, he has urged people not to be lax in adhering to public health measures.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, he said: "It’s going to be a more difficult winter then we’ve ever faced before because we’re heading into winter and managing Covid and trying to scale up our services that we’ve had to scale down.
“There is apprehension because we are normally operating at 95% bed capacity, and at over 100% in winter. So we will need to do things very differently.
”My message to people in terms of hope and confidence is that we are living with Covid, it is a new phase, we’ve a lot of learning.
“We just have to take hope and confidence and living differently, and plan differently.
“The worst day for Covid-19 was at the end of April, when there were 936 cases, with 879 people in hospital, and 160 in ICU.”
The relatively low number of people currently needing hospital treatment for Covid-19 can be explained by 75% of the cases being in people under the age of 45.
But he warned that this group can easily transmit the virus to an older or more vulnerable person.
He added: "Young people can get very sick with this virus. It does not distinguish, and all are vulnerable.
“The risk of transmission from younger people to older people is still the same risk as it was at the start of this."
