Non-emergency services may be cancelled and the use of private hospitals expanded if Covid-19 case numbers continue to rise, the Health Service Executive's Director of Acute Hospitals has said.
Liam Woods said there "there is no mitigation for an uncontrolled continuous growth of Covid within our health system", and warned it is not realistic for the system to cope with between 400 and 500 ICU admissions.
Mr Woods said current capacity in ICU is 301 beds and a minimum of 100 of those are ringfenced for non-Covid patients. Yesterday, the Cabinet Committee on Covid was told that between 400 and 500 people could require intensive care beds in December and around 2,200 people might be in hospital with Covid-19 in the worst case scenario.