The "strongest and most pre-emptive strike" the HSE can make in relation to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is the vaccine booster programme, and getting more people boosted in a quicker period of time, Health Service Executive CEO Paul Reid has said.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Reid said there were 408 patients in hospital with Covid-19, with 107 of these in ICUs. "This is still a very high base for which we head into all of the indications of what Omicron will bring," Mr Reid said.
The HSE is looking at scaling up ICU capacity and also looking at how to move into a surge if required, he added. He said hospitals took the right actions to dial down on non urgent care when they saw the surge in the Delta wave recently, but said