Covid-19 in nursing homes Almost 900 cases and 31 deaths since June

Almost 900 nursing home residents have tested positive for Covid-19 since the end of June, according to public health officials.

Out of 896 nursing home cases, 31 were hospitalised and 31 died - a mortality rate of 3.5 per cent, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said.

Over the period, there have been 51 outbreaks in nursing homes and seven in community hospitals, Dr Holohan told the Oireachtas health committee.

While nursing home residents have died this summer as a result of infection with the virus, mortality levels are much lower than earlier in the pandemic, he said. Virtually all nursing home residents are fully vaccinated.

Cases were occurring because of the force of infection in the wider community at present.

In addition, vaccines are not 100 per cent effective. Dr Holohan said some nursing homes were experiencing challenges in maintaining high staffing levels.

Ireland is on track for the full easing of Covid-19 restrictions on October 22nd, National Public Health Emergency Team officials have indicated.

The easing of measures is a “short number of weeks away”, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan told the Oireachtas health committee.

Lockdown

Dr Holohan said he didn’t think it would be necessary to re-impose a lockdown in the future but this could never be absolutely ruled out.

Infections have peaks and case numbers should decline “from here on out”, Nphet official Prof Philip Nolan told the committee.

He said modelling suggests trends are following the optimistic scenario set out by Nphet earlier in the summer. However, there is the potential for a greater wave of disease if people relax their adherence to public health measures or if children turn out to be a greater driver for disease transmission than had been assumed.

Dr Holohan said Nphet plans to make changes to the rules around testing and self-isolation but first it wants to monitor the impact of the resumption of the school year on cases.

“We don’t need to test every case of mild illness to inform our understanding of the disease,” he told TDs.

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