The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 continued to increase in Mayo over the past week, marking the county out as the black spot for cases in Connacht.
The most recent figures, at time of going to print, were 478 confirmed cases of the virus in Mayo as of midnight on Monday, April 27, an increase of 139 in the space of seven days and 262 in a fortnight.
The number of people being treated in Mayo University Hospital for Covid-19, as of 8pm on Wednesday, April 29, stood at 33 confirmed cases of the virus - a figure that has stayed roughly the same over the past week - with 35 being the highest number of confirmed cases treated in the hospital over the past five days.
Nationally, the National Public Health Emergency Team confirmed on Wednesday night there are now over 20,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country, with 1,190 Covid-19 related deaths in the Republic of Ireland.
Up to 10,000 Covid-19 tests will be carried out weekly in Galway, Mayo, and Rocommon by mid May, according to Tony Canavan, the chief executive of the Saolta University Health Care Group which runs the local public hospitals.
The broadening of the eligibility criteria, which was announced earlier this week, means that new patients need only have one of three key symptoms - a fever, cough, or shortness of breath - to qualify for a test.
This slight change in the case definition is expected to result in an increase in the number of people being tested for the coronavirus, a possible rise in hospital admissions, and greater demands on staffing services.
Mr Canavan said the importance of testing could not be overemphasised. "Testing is really important as we go forward," he told this newspaper. "It is the only way we know about what is happening with the virus in the community. The HSE is attempting to increase testing capacity across the country to 100,000 tests a week.
"As 10 per cent of the population lives in Galway, Mayo, and Roscommon, this means that about 8,000 to 10,000 tests will be carried out here each week; it is hoped to reach that target by mid May. We are trying to anticipate the likely effects of this. The increased testing could result in greater numbers of admissions to hospitals. One of our concerns is that when you increase the rate of testing it will impact on staff and there could be more difficulties in staffing some services. But this [testing] has to be done and we need to take decisions now to support that."
He said the widening of the eligibility criteria for testing was aimed at "pushing numbers up" and getting a "better picture" of virus numbers and trends in the community.
The chief executive of Saolta, which provides acute and specialist services in seven hospitals on five sites - Galway (UHG, Merlin Park, and Portiuncula in Ballinasloe ), Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, and Donegal - also said while "real progress" has been made in suppressing Covid-19, the situation remained precarious. He warned that it would be all too easy to lose ground and appealed to people to continue abiding by the restrictions.
"It doesn't look like there will be a significant easing of restrictions [in the next week]. If that is the case, it is for a good reason - that Covid-19 has not been contained sufficiently. The National Public Health Emergency Team [which was set up in January to co-ordinate the country's response to the coronavirus] has been very measured in their approach. We have every reason to trust their advice and the direction they give us.
"People have been compliant for quite a long time and it is important to maintain that discipline. If they think about the scenes from other countries, such as Spain, Italy, and some states in the United States - we have managed to avoid that so far because people have been so disciplined.
"Real progress has been made but it is very delicate. If we went back very rapidly to where things were seven weeks ago, things would disimprove quickly."
Increase in numbers attending hospital emergency departments
Mr Canavan also noted that local hospitals have been reporting increased numbers attending their emergency departments for general hospital care. "Since last week, all our hospitals, UHG, Portiuncula, and Mayo have been a little busier. There has been a 12 per cent increase in attendance in the past week. The biggest growth would be in UHG numbers, they would be slightly lower in Portiuncula and Mayo. The number of admissions has gone up too, by over nine per cent in the last week. We see all that as a good thing, people are coming in because they need to be seen."
He reassured people there were vacant intensive care and general beds in all the local hospitals. "Between Portiuncula, UHG, and Mayo University Hospital, there are 30 ICU beds. We have 17 of those available. In our three hospitals, there are relatively small numbers overall of Covid-10 patients. Our biggest fear was that a massive wave would come with Covid-19 and there would not be enough ICU beds and staffing. The reason that didn't happen was because people complied with the restrictions."
