A man who failed to restrict his movements after returning to Ireland from a holiday abroad led to at least 56 people being infected with Covid-19, including up to 10 households and a sports team.
A man who failed to restrict his movements after returning to Ireland from a holiday abroad led to at least 56 people being infected with Covid-19, including up to 10 households and a sports team.
The sobering “real example” of how the virus can quickly spread within the community is revealed today in a report by the Department of Public Health, Mid West.
It comes as three more deaths from the virus were reported yesterday as well as 1,283 new infections.
Of these, 408 were in Dublin, 156 in Cork, 88 in Kildare, 80 in Meath, 55 in Limerick and the remaining 496 cases were spread across 21 other counties.
The highly infectious nature of the virus is demonstrated in the case cited by the department today.
Its report said the man at the centre of the outbreak “was abroad on his holidays but he did not restrict his movements as per the current HSE guidelines when he got home”.
At first he had “mild symptoms including a runny nose and a mild sore throat”, and his “temperature was normal”.
“He felt reassured by this and socialised with a group of friends and he later tested positive for Covid-19.
“However, by this stage, he had already infected a number of his friends. Three of these friends went on to infect their families.”
The report said: “Another friend who he infected felt unwell and contacted her GP to arrange a Covid-19 test. She had the test in the morning but by afternoon she felt a bit better and decided to go to a friend’s party.
“After the party, she got her test result and it was positive. By attending the party while waiting for her test result, she ended up infecting a number of other people.”
As the man at the centre of the case “has a close extended family who visit each other’s houses regularly, this led to some extended family members also getting infected with Covid-19.
“One of his extended family members who had no symptoms played a match with his local team and a number of his teammates were infected as a result.”
The team members then went on to infect “a number of people”.
In all, at least 56 people are believed to have been infected in the outbreak.
Meanwhile, health chiefs have insisted that critical care beds are available despite the surge in Covid-19 cases and the increased number of hospitalisations nationwide.
The insistence came as a senior doctor warned that Cork faced the risk of patients having to be transferred elsewhere and critical cancer surgeries either being re-scheduled or postponed because of mounting pressure on available critical care bed capacity.
However, a South-Southwest Hospital Group (SSWHG) spokesperson insisted that intensive care beds were available despite the surge in the virus.
“This morning there were four critical care beds available in Cork University Hospital (CUH),” the spokesperson said.
Another health source indicated that intensive care beds were also available in Dublin and Galway.
Cork GP Dr Mary Favier, who is also an adviser to the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), said hospitals faced increased pressure. “For the last number of days in Cork, there have been no intensive care beds available and one (doctor) had to ring several other units around the country before he could find a bed. That raises issues of safety and resources for transfer,” she told RTÉ.
Irish Independent