One of the country's top doctors has officially warned that Ireland could see up to 1,500 cases a day and up to 450 people in hospital with coronavirus by November 7 at the current rate of transmission.
Professor Philip Nolan, who is the Chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team's (NPHET) Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, spoke about a disastrous rise nationally if we could not "immediately" curb the spread of Covid-19.
As a further 611 cases and five further deaths due to the virus emerged on Wednesday, he said: "Case numbers and hospitalisations are growing exponentially.
"The Reproductive number is now estimated at 1.2.
"If we fail to reduce viral transmission nationwide immediately, we could see 1,100 – 1,500 cases per day and 300-450 people in hospital by November 7."
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, added: “All key indicators of the disease have deteriorated further in the three days since the last meeting of NPHET on Sunday 4 October.
"COVID-19 is spreading in our community in a very worrying manner. We have to break these chains of transmission.
“80 COVID-19 cases were hospitalised in August, 206 in September and 77 so far in October.
“In August, 4 COVID-19 related deaths in total were reported, 34 in September and today on the 7 of October we report 8 COVID-19 related deaths this month.”
Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, also said: “Trends in case numbers and incidence are now being reflected in indicators of disease severity.
"The number of people in hospital has increased from 122 last Thursday to 156 this afternoon.
"There are currently 25 people in critical care compared to 20 one week ago.”
Dr Siobhán Ni Bhriain, Consultant Psychiatrist and HSE Integrated Care Lead said: “I urge everyone to remind themselves of what they can do on an individual level to suppress the virus and prevent a surge on hospital demands.
"Currently, the average length of stay of a COVID-19 patient is 20 days in hospital and 14 days in ICU.
"ICU is the last stop in the care pathway for any illness.
"Focus on prevention and follow public health advice to ensure care pathways are available to as many people and treatments as possible."
Of the cases notified today;
- 303 are men / 305 are women
- 59% are under 45 years of age
- 50% are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
- 83 cases have been identified as community transmission
- 218 in Dublin, 63 in Cork, 60 in Donegal, 35 in Galway, 31 in Kildare and the remaining 204 are located across 21 counties.
