IT IS understood by the Limerick Post that there has been an outbreak of the Covid-19 virus at St John’s Hospital in Limerick City, leading to a number of visitor restrictions being put in place.
Informed sources have claimed that patients were first identified as having the virus at the city centre hospital a number of days ago, though the current count of patients who have been diagnosed is as yet unconfirmed.
As a result of the outbreak, a number of curtailments are believed to be in place for visitors in areas across the hospital in order to manage the outbreak and protect the health and wellbeing of patients and staff.
This comes as confirmations were made last week by UL Hospitals Group (ULHG) – who are responsible for St John’s Hospital – of Covid-19 outbreaks across a number of inpatient wards at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
A spokesman for ULHG at the time said that the outbreaks at UHL “are being monitored daily by our outbreak teams and Infection Prevention and Control staff, with the wearing of surgical masks advised in these locations”.
According to the HSE Special Delivery Unit’s TrolleyGAR report, which provides daily figures of the number of patients waiting in emergency departments for in-hospital beds nationwide, there were 25 patients identified as having Covid-19 in UHL this morning (Saturday).
However it is not known which wards in the Dooradoyle hospital are affected by the outbreaks.
According to the report, the Irish hospital with the highest number of patients being treated with Covid-19 as of this morning is Galway University Hospital (38), followed by University Hospital Waterford (34).
The daily TrolleyGAR report does not contain figures for St John’s Hospital.
