People should stay away from New Year’s Eve parties if they have flu symptoms, the HSE has warned, as the number of people in hospital with the respiratory infection approaches 1,000.
The HSE said 984 people were in hospital with flu on Monday morning – already an advance of the figure of 900 which the organisation had anticipated would be reached this week.
Prof Pat Nash, a consultant cardiologist and a group clinical director with the HSE, said the flu virus would behave “no differently from Covid or any respiratory illness where there are large gatherings”.
Asked about mixing with other people during New Year’s Eve festivities, he said: “If you are unwell, you should stay at home because your likelihood of possibly having the flu or any other respiratory illness and transmitting it to others, is very likely.”
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He said the message was particularly relevant to people who were “more vulnerable, the very young or the very old who are more vulnerable to getting acutely unwell from the flu”.
The HSE said 869 people were in hospitals around Ireland being treated for flu on Sunday, a seven-day increase of 339 patients. Monday’s further increase of 115 hospitalisations represented a 13 per cent rise in 24 hours.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Drivetime on Monday, Prof Nash said “peak flu” was expected later this week or next and he urged people “even at this late stage to get the flu vaccine”.
“I think we have to revisit that messaging and reprioritise the need and the essential importance of vaccination for, in particular, healthcare workers,” he said.
The numbers of people hospitalised with flu have been climbing steadily in recent days.
HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster on Sunday asked for the public’s assistance in controlling the circulation of flu and said if people had flu-like symptoms they should start by seeking the advice of a pharmacist but then contact their family doctor or an out-of-hours service.
“Flu is very active in the community and of course the basics of hand hygiene and cough etiquette always apply,” he said.
The rise in patients requiring hospitalisation comes as the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said there were 606 admitted patients waiting for beds on Monday morning.
Some 408 patients were waiting in emergency departments, while 198 were in wards elsewhere in the hospitals, according to the INMO’s Trolley Watch survey.
The survey found numbers of patients in hospital were high in the west and south particularly, with 108 patients on trolleys in Limerick University Hospital, on Monday.
In Cork University Hospital the number of patients on trolleys was 55; in St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, it was 24; and in Mayo University Hospital it was 37.
This compared with just three in Waterford University Hospital and just four in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Navan, Co Meath.
Mr Gloster said the demand on services at emergency departments over the Christmas period had increased significantly from last year,
“Between 20th and 27th of December, 34,400 people attended emergency departments, an increase on 27,800 for the same week last year; 8,500 patients were admitted compared with 7,800 for the same period last year yet we have fewer people on trolleys. Record discharges over the course of this seven-day period is keeping the system to some degree stable,” he said.
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