Over 70% of Covid patients in hospitals do not need oxygen support, according to a survey by the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland.
It comes as the head of the HSE noted hospitilsation figures were steadying and that Ireland is reaching the peak of the Omicron wave.
According to this new survey of 9 hospitals, 32% of unvaccinated covid patients required oxygen compared with 8% of those who’ve been vaccinated.
Chief Operations Officer with the HSE Anne O’Connor says the unvaccinated are still over-represented in hospital patients:
"Approximately 40% of those people in hospital are not vaccinated. And if you look at ICU it's even higher - it's around 55% now.
"So it's a completely disproportionate impact."
For the first time since New Years, the positivity rate of PCR results has fallen under 50%.
Chief Executive of the HSE Paul Reid says we’re reaching the peak of the omicron wave in Ireland.
"When we do plateau we know the tail, and the way out of this is a lot longer for our hospitals to deal with.
"I would be cautiously hopeful we're seeing good indications."
But healthcare staff are still under pressure.
Tony Fitzpatrick is a spokesperson is from the INMO:
"Over 1,000 patients are admitted with Covid-19, and healthcare workers - including nurses and midwives - are absolutely exhausted."
From today, people under 40 can upload positive antigen test results on the HSE website and asymptomatic close contacts who’ve been boosted will no longer need to self isolated.
