‘We’re already seeing very, very positive impacts of vaccination’ - no positive Covid cases for Cork GP in five weeks

A Cork GP hasn’t seen a positive case of Covid-19 in five weeks, as the effects of the vaccine rollout are beginning to be seen.

Doctor Nuala O’Connor of Elmwood Medical Practice, Douglas, Cork said we’re already seeing some of the benefits of our vaccination programme.

“We’re already seeing very, very positive impacts of vaccination,” she told RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland today. “The amount of healthcare workers contracting Covid has literally fallen off a cliff.

“The amount of people who are contracting Covid while they’re in hospital has absolutely substantially reduced. We’ve seen a huge reduction in outbreaks in nursing homes. We’ve also seen a much steeper fall off in the incidence of Covid disease in our over 85s.

“So there are real signs that vaccination is starting to have an impact in Ireland.

"And we know in countries ahead of us it’s having an even greater impact. So there is a lot of pause for hope, but we just need to keep going for a little bit longer.”

She continued: “In our practice, we haven’t had a Covid case positive for the last five weeks.

“But Covid is there. The virus hasn’t changed. And if we give this virus the opportunity to resurge, it will do.”

Dr O’Connor noted that Ireland is still in a position in which case numbers could begin to rise again if the proper precautions are not followed.

“The case numbers, unfortunately, in the last two weeks, they seem to have stalled in terms of the reduction,” she said.

“So there’s still quite a bit of Covid disease in the community.

“And we’ve had one or two signals from the GP data in the last week or so that are concerning. So our GP community tracker, again we can see that the number of cases meeting the criteria for Covid when people present with symptoms, that seems to have stalled - the reduction is not continuing.

“Even though the amount of people presenting with symptoms of flu like illness has not increased, the number positive for Covid has gone from 9.7pc to 13.9pc over the course of the last two weeks.”

As such, Dr O’Connor emphasised that people should continue to follow current Level 5 regulations, and continue to only meet one other household outdoors, particularly this St Patrick’s Day.

“Just for one more St Patrick’s Day… our message to people is to get outdoors, enjoy the outdoors, but enjoy it safely.”

Irish Independent