The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care in the Republic is down from its peak - but there’s a warning that Ireland could still have a “really big problem” if people become complacent about the current restrictions.
As of Thursday night, 344 people had been admitted to intensive care units here with the virus - with figures released earlier this week showed more than 120 of those patients have since been discharged.
Dr Catherine Motherway, President of the Intensive Care Society, spoke to Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh about the numbers in ICUs here.
She said: “There’s no doubt that thankfully due to the work of our population the numbers of people getting ill with COVID has decreased somewhat, and the numbers coming into the units have increased somewhat.
“We still had yesterday 122 confirmed cases in the intensive care units, and another 23 suspected. We’re still seeing people coming in with this disease, and they remain ill with it for quite some time - they come from all ages and groups.”
Dr Motherway noted that the numbers have decreased from a peak of 170 cases in ICU around two weeks ago.
She explained: “Thankfully we are seeing some people discharged alive, and unfortunately we’ve also seen deaths.
“We’ve had at least 50 deaths in the ICUs in this country, and our sympathies go with those 50 families and indeed many families - over 1,000 now - who’ve lost their relatives.”
She said that ICU staff and management are coping, “because we have to”.
She told Susan: “We’ve had the absolute pleasure of having a large number of staff redeployed to help us in this effort.
“We’ll continue to work hard over the next period of time.”
Dr Motherway suggested we’re going to be living with coronavirus “for quite a period of time”, until there are proven treatments or a vaccine for the virus.
She observed: “I think there’s going to be a new normal way of living. I don’t think we’ll be able to have ginormous parties after May 5th - that is not going to happen.
“Any let up in our vigilance will bring us back to where we started. The biggest problem we face is complacency - it’s a very difficult thing to do what we’re doing… [but] we need to find a different way to live.”
Dr Motherway said people in Ireland have done well to date, but warned that “we cannot let our foot off the gas.”
She said: “The reward here is the fact that we are seeing reduced admissions.
“The reason why there isn’t a really big problem is because we’ve done a really good job, but there will be a really big problem if we become complacent.”
