Since Friday, about 700 patients with the virus have been admitted to hospitals, putting the health system under strain.

According to the latest estimates, the highly transmissible BA.2 strain of Covid-19 is responsible for over 95 percent of virus infections in Ireland.

According to data released by the Department of Health, the spread of BA.2 infections to the near exclusion of other strains has coincided with an increase in cases in the most recent wave of the pandemic.

Since Friday, about 700 people have been brought to hospitals with the virus as the pandemic continues to put a strain on the health system. On Sunday, 221 patients had been hospitalized with the condition in the previous 24 hours, up from 235 on Saturday and a pandemic high of 235 on Friday.

For the first time since late January 2021, the total number of coronavirus patients in the hospital has surpassed 1,500, reaching 1,569 on Sunday morning.

52 patients are currently being admitted to intensive care per day, an increase of one from the previous day.

In the third week of January, when the government eased most Covid-19 limits, BA.2 accounted for only 4 percent of cases. By the time the remaining restrictions were lifted at the end of February, it accounted for 76 percent of cases.

Since then, its dominance has grown even more pronounced: it accounted for 90.6 percent of cases in mid-March, and 94 percent on March 20, the most recent day for which data is available.

Image Credit: Getty

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