Irish health officials believe there is a South African COVID-19 variant

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Health officials in Ireland, where a more contagious version of the coronavirus first detected in England has been compromised on Saturday, believe three cases of mutation have occurred. to keep another new discovery found in South Africa.

Ireland is embracing a COVID-19 surge that has surpassed the first wave last year. He confirmed the first cases of the infectious variation found in South Africa on Friday in people who had traveled to Ireland from South Africa over the Christmas holidays.

Ireland said this week that more people were seeing the variation which was first discovered in England. It was found in 25% of advanced cases that went through additional tests in the week to January 3, up from just 9% two weeks earlier.

“We are concerned about the diversity of the UK simply due to the high level of virus on the island, which we know is spreading in the community,” added Cillian De Gascun, head of Ireland’s national virus laboratory. the national broadcaster RTE.

“The good thing about the South African variable is that we know exactly where these issues came from, they were held, controlled and traced, and as far as I know there was no transmission. forward. ”

The government announced its strict lock-in measures since early last year, warning that a “tsunami” of UK-induced diseases and a loophole before Christmas could overwhelm the UK. the health care system.

The number of patients in Irish hospitals with COVID-19 rose 12% in the 24-hour place on Saturday to 1,285, after a few days exceeding the high of 881 set at the first a wave of diseases.

A further fourteen patients were admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). That brought the total number receiving emergency care to 119 and left just 27 of the 284 ICU beds in the country ‘s public hospitals empty.

These hospitals can safely increase ICU capacity to 375, the head of the Irish Health Service (HSE) Government said this week. The HSE has also reached an agreement to take over private hospital ICU beds for COVID-19 admission.