HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE reported an additional 19,290 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland today.

As of 8am this morning, 1,062 people were in hospital with the virus, 92 of whom were receiving treatment in intensive care.

Yesterday, there were 23,909 cases of Covid-19 reported, with 1,063 people in hospital and 89 in ICU.

On Wednesday last week, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) said that there had been 40 deaths notified in the week previous, bringing Ireland’s total to 5,952. Deaths are announced on Wednesday every week. 

The latest figures come in the wake of warnings from NPHET that the PCR testing system has been overwhelmed by the volume of the disease in the country, and that the true volume of cases is much higher.

Speaking at a HSE press briefing last Thursday, HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid said that there is “no doubt” that a large number of cases are being missed. 

“There’s no doubt we haven’t seen the total volume that we’re seeing. There’s much more than what we’re seeing coming through in our daily published cases, absolutely no doubt” said Reid.

Changes to guidelines around who should seek a PCR test were announced two weeks ago in a bid to ease the pressure on the system, including advice for symptomatic people in younger age groups to instead take regular antigen tests and only seek a PCR test if they receive a positive antigen result first.

As a result of the guidance changes and the ongoing strain on the PCR system, the daily case number figures released each evening underestimate of the level of Covid-19 in Ireland compared to earlier periods in the pandemic when the daily figures were much lower.